Garden sprayers are great when you need to chemically treat a small area of your lawn or garden. However, when you need to cover a large area of your hobby farm, your best bet will be an ag sprayer. Choosing the right ag sprayer will help you spread pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers over your crops quickly and efficiently.
When you’re shopping for an ag sprayer, there are a few variables to consider. You’ll need to look at size, the dispensing system, and how it’s attached to your farm equipment. Blain’s Farm & Fleet breaks down the different variables to make shopping for an ag sprayer a snap.
Ag sprayers can range in size, anywhere from 40 gallons to 300+ gallons. Choosing the right size really depends on how much land you plan on covering. Also remember that most chemicals are a concentrate that need to be mixed with water.
Ag sprayers have different ways of dispensing chemicals. Most ag sprayers have a boom system, which is used to carry sprayer nozzles from the carrier. The boom system can either be a dry boom or a wet boom. Some sprayers come with both a boom and a hand sprayer hose, depending on the model. Boom mounts are used to evenly distribute the chemicals on a very large area.
There are different ways to mount a sprayer onto your farm equipment. The sprayer tank can be mounted on the front, side, or with a 3-point hitch. A 3-point ag sprayer is the most common model you’ll find for smaller farm work. A 3-point sprayer can be attached to the 3-point hitch of a tractor for use in a small field or pasture, making it perfect for your hobby farm.
An ATV sprayer or trailer sprayer can also be used to spread farming chemicals. You can attach the sprayer to an ATV or lawn tractor. While these smaller sprayers would be inefficient when working on a large field, they can be used for parts of your field that are inaccessible to tractors.
Now that you have down the basics for Ag sprayers, you should have no problem finding a sprayer that works for you and the job that needs to be done. For more hobby farming tips and information, check out Blain’s Farm & Fleet’s Hobby Farming Blog.
