title: Development and evaluation of a combined cultivator and band sprayer with a row-centering RTK-GPS guidance system.
abstract: Typically, low-pressure sprayers are used to uniformly apply pre- and post-emergent herbicides to control weeds in crop rows. An innovative machine for weed control in inter-row and intra-row areas, with a unique combination of inter-row cultivation tooling and intra-row band spraying for six rows and an electro-hydraulic side-shift frame controlled by a GPS system, was developed and evaluated. Two weed management strategies were tested in the field trials: broadcast spraying (the conventional method) and band spraying with mechanical weed control using RTK-GPS (the experimental method). This approach enabled the comparison between treatments from the perspective of cost savings and efficacy in weed control for a sugar beet crop. During the 2010-2011 season, the herbicide application rate (112 L ha(-1)) of the experimental method was approximately 50% of the conventional method, and thus a significant reduction in the operating costs of weed management was achieved. A comparison of the 0.2-trimmed means of weed population post-treatment showed that the treatments achieved similar weed control rates at each weed survey date. Sugar beet yields were similar with both methods (p = 0.92). The use of the experimental equipment is cost-effective on ≥20 ha of crops. These initial results show good potential for reducing herbicide application in the Spanish beet industry.
authors.affiliation: Aerospace Engineering and Fluids Mechanics Department, University of Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain. manuelperez@us.es
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perez-Ruiz
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Carballido
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Agüera
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez-Lizana
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D027461:Beta vulgaris; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D006540:Herbicides; D006801:Humans; D058728:Weed Control / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D006540:Herbicides