Criollo App: a tool from INTA to calibrate the sprayer

Criollo is a tool for the calibration and control of sprayers developed by specialists from INTA Hilario Ascasubi –Buenos Aires–, which allows calculating the main operating parameters of land sprayers. With more than 20,000 installations covering approximately 8 million hectares per year. The app is available on GooglePlay and is free to download.

Criollo was designed to calibrate and control sprayers. It was developed by specialists from INTA Ascasubi to obtain the main operating parameters of land boom sprayers and performing the corresponding static verification. It was recently updated with the addition of more utilities available to users.

Juan Pablo D’Amico —one of the creators of the app and INTA Hilario Ascasubi technician explained that Criollo “is a reference application for the sector, which has more than 8 years in the market and about 20,000 installations. In addition, it is updated periodically with the incorporation of tools that arise from the daily relationship with applicators and professionals in the sector”.

D’amico explained that the app “has three specific versions for boom sprayers, turbine atomizers and backpacks. It is estimated that about 8 million hectares of crops are treated annually with machines enlisted using these apps.”

This new version incorporates the droplet size information generated from the selection of different spout designs. Based on international standards and the peak performance reported by the manufacturers, the app allows you to display on screen the droplet diameter ranges produced by the spout used and the operating point of the machine according to the established regulation.

“This data is very important when looking for a certain quality of application and controlling spray drift. The information available on the screen in an immediate and accessible way also allows us to verify the effect that the change in operating parameters may have,” explained D’Amico.

On the other hand, this update incorporates calculation tools to operate with broths of higher density such as liquid fertilizers. Once the user selects the “fertilizer” option and enters the value of the broth density, when applying the Criollo app, it generates the calculations of flow, pressure or advance speed considering this condition of the input.

The researcher indicated that “this tool is very useful, since it does not require the equipment operator to have to make additional calculations or empirical tests to achieve the correct operating parameters.”

The work team responsible for the development, made up of technicians from INTA and CONICET, also developed the El Galpón app for the management of agricultural inputs and the Apps Campero series for regulation of seeders and fertilizers by projection. All these products are available on GooglePlay and are free to download.

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