Blackgrass burdened farmers are quickly running out of options, but this hooded band sprayer from S&K Sprayer Services could take the edge of the headache.

At 9m wide it’s claimed to be the biggest hooded band sprayer on the market and its beefy construction is designed to handle the rigours of bashing up and down broad-acre arable fields.

Called the Smart Sprayer it helps tackle the weed by spraying glyphosate between rows of band sown crops. This wipes out all the sneaky blackgrass that decides to pop up between the rows after planting.

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It’s also got a second spray line that only squirts the expensive selective products on the plants you want to keep.

Clearly accuracy has got to be spot on. That means the Smart Sprayer has to be used with ultra-accurate RTK guidance. Other less accurate options could cause the hoods to wander where they shouldn’t.

Speed is less of a problem though as S&K has already had it running successfully at 14kph.

Both chemicals and clean water are stored in a three-way split stainless steel tank. To eliminate the chance of product mixing these have been made as three separate tanks that have been welded together.

The 9m Smart Sprayer with front tank, Trimble FMX screen and front-and-rear cameras costs about £70,000.