Picking the proper spray tip requires walking a fine line between good coverage and drift control.

Unfortunately, the nozzle with perfect coverage — a small fine droplet — is also likely to be at greater risk for drift, while a nozzle that eliminates drift with a large droplet size is likely to produce less-than-ideal coverage.

But there is a happy medium to be found for savvy applicators.

“If we select the right nozzle tip and operate it correctly with appropriate boom pressure, boom height and nozzle direction, we can manage spray drift and still get the efficacy we need,” says Bob Klein, University of Nebraska extension cropping systems specialist.

Controlling drift is a no-brainer for no-tillers neighboring sensitive crops, but Klein says everybody benefits from minimizing drift as much as possible.

“If we have 8% drift, that’s like throwing away 8% of your spray investment,” he says.

An application that runs $10 per acre would result in an 80-cent-per-acre loss, or $240 over a 300-acre field in lost material alone. That’s not including decreased efficacy or the cost of off-target damage.

To avoid those losses and get the most out of a chemical investment, no-tillers need to carefully select nozzle tips and manage their spray operations. That may mean using more than one set of nozzles to get through a year of applications.

Common Nozzles

Here’s a quick look at the types of nozzle tips from which no-tillers can choose, along with their strengths.

Turbo TeeJet. This newer nozzle designed…