Sprayer operators regularly apply agricultural products such as pesticides, fertilizers, and plant growth modifiers to ensure the health and marketability of their crops. A successful application requires three things:
- An understanding of safe product handling,
- criteria for what and when to spray, and
- the requisite skill to apply products effectively and efficiently.
Generally, pesticide safety certification programs (farmer or contractor) focus on the safe handling, storage and use of pesticides, but they do not provide recommendations on how best to apply them.
When this website was launched at the end of 2013, it was based on Airblast 101: a four hour classroom-based course designed to provide participants with practical tools to allow them to spray agricultural products in an effective, economic and environmentally responsible manner. Developed by Dr. Jason Deveau of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness in association with Croplife Canada, the course and companion website were created to introduce a new operator to spraying, or to refresh a seasoned veteran.
In 2014, Dr. Tom Wolf of Agrimetrix Research & Training (Saskatchewan) came on board. With Tom’s involvement, the website was re-imagined and greatly expanded to include field sprayer resources. In 2015 we re-launched as www.sprayers101.com. In 2021 we refreshed the look and feel of the site and increased both its functionality and integration with our YouTube site and downloadable resources.
Today we curate and develop unbiased and mostly didactic technical information on the spraying industry that serves the interests of farmers and agriculture professionals. We tackle subjects relating to spray drift management, pesticide efficacy, canopy penetration, sprayer cleanout and the like, and offer information in a variety of media including narrated articles, videos, comics, downloadable calculators and even poetry and song parodies. In addition to publishing a large number of how-to articles, we stay abreast of, and write about, all major technical developments in the spray sector, including RPAS (drones) spot sprays and artificial intelligence.
With over 225,000 page views (as of 2024) each year from users around the globe, www.sprayers101.com has become the world’s primary source for unbiased information on agricultural spraying. Our current supporters are commodity groups. We do not accept support from commercial interests.
So thanks to our sponsors, thanks to our content contributors and thanks to you for visiting www.sprayers101.com.
Happy Spraying!
