As fertilizer prices continue to increase, application accuracy becomes more important.  Unfortunately, granular fertilizer application equipment tends to be very inaccurate and inconsistent in material placement.  One of the biggest challenges for operators is understanding proper overlap between passes to achieve uniformity.  A national effort has developed a new standard that prescribes proper methodology to evaluate the distribution pattern from granular application equipment and to specify the proper overlap and associated swath width for most uniform coverage.  Additional extension materials are under development to help farmers implement these testing procedures for their equipment and understand equipment performance.