Assessing application errors on sports fields across varying levels of sprayer technology and operator experience

Abstract

This study aimed to quantify misses, overlaps, and oversprays on sports fields using different sprayer technologies across operator experience levels. Conducted from Winter 2022 to Summer 2023 at Veterans Park and Southwood Park in College Station, TX, identical studies were conducted on softball, baseball, and soccer fields. Employing a crossover design, six treatments were administered to three fields at each location, using manual, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and GNSS + autosteer sprayer technologies. Operators ranged from a highly experienced former sports field manager with nearly 20 years of experience to four inexperienced undergraduate students. Field boundaries were georeferenced for target area determination and treatment applications, using water and a spray volume of 65 gal per acre. ArcMap calculated percentage target area missed, overlapped, and oversprayed based on the actual versus intended volume sprayed. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, and means were separated using Fisher's protected LSD (α = 0.05). Applications by inexperienced operators using manual spray mode typically resulted in the highest rates of percentage target area missed and overlapped across locations and field types. The use of GNSS and autosteer technologies markedly reduced these errors and, consequently, percentage target area oversprayed. This enhancement in the consistency of applications led to a reduction of up to 4.6% in the total volume applied on the softball, baseball, and soccer fields. Therefore, the findings suggest that investing in GNSS‐equipped sprayers with autosteer not only decreases the dependency on experienced operators but also minimizes errors and reduces total volume applied.