Now that most no-tillers have pretty much mastered the chemical side of pesticide management, they’re paying more attention to application costs, timeliness and equipment selection. This means more no-tillers will be doing more of their own pesticide applications in the future.

While there’s little doubt that the Asian soybean rust scare led to increased sales of both pull-type and self-propelled sprayers over the past 2 years, growing interest in effective spraying is encouraging no-tillers to take an even closer look at the economics of timely weed, insect and disease control.

As an example of how times are changing, a Nebraska farm equipment salesman says 85 percent of self-propelled sprayer sales 10 years ago went to custom applicators. Today, the market has flip-flopped and 85 percent of the self-propelled sprayers that he handles are sold to farmers. He credits the shift in sales to the ease of applying Roundup, a sharp increase in custom application costs and the fact that more farmers are insisting on timely chemical application for better pest control.

During a meeting of dealers for the Equipment Technologies line of Apache sprayers in Sioux Falls, S.D., No-Till Farmer editors asked a number of attendees for their thoughts regarding the no-till market. Here’s what they had to say.

1. Dave Odenweller finds farmers are extremely knowledgeable about pesticide management. Their main concern about spraying is whether to do the job themselves in order to be more timely.

“When you call on a farmer, they’ve already done their research on…