At issue is on-farm use of drones for the application of pesticides. Drones with the capability to apply pesticides are now being actively marketed to farmers. Innovative producers are excited. They believe drone application is a great new technology that could add value to their businesses. However, they are frustrated that regulations have not kept up to the technology and that pesticide manufacturers are hesitant to endorse the use of their products via drones. These farmers also worry about resistance from environmentalists and the public.

This issue became clear to me this past fall at the Agri-Trade show in Red Deer, Alberta. I spoke with three of the at least four exhibitors there marketing drones capable of applying pesticides. All made compelling cases why farmers should consider using a drone instead of their current options, i.e. a ground sprayer or hiring a licensed aerial applicator.

Each also told me they knew of farmers already using drones to apply fungicides and herbicides to cropland and pastures. But what the three vendors did not mention, until I questioned them, was the regulatory restrictions on using their drones for pesticide applications. This is when the conversations really became interesting.

But before I expand on that, this trade show was not the only place where farmer interest in drones is being expressed. Social media has reports of Canadian farmers already using drones. For example, a retailer of agricultural drones recently posted the following on Facebook: “… We also recognize that these won’t replace ground rigs completely yet. However, many of our customers are using these (drones) a couple of ways: smaller fields for fungicide application, ditch lines, headlands on calm days while the high clearance chews up the big acres.”

Then the post went on to add, “That said, we do have customers that opt for these overused pull types for their main sprayer. We have guys that have done 4,500+ acres in the past year with just one. With the bonus being they don’t leave tracks. But most importantly, they’re around $40,000, compared to $1,000,000 for a new high-clearance sprayer.”

On X (formally Twitter) there have also been posts by farmers about using drones for pesticide application. One poster recently wrote: “How far away until we start seeing high-clearance sprayers switched out for drones on farms in Western Canada,” to which one farmer replied: “I think it’s viable now. Just waiting for the rules to catch up,” and another: “We are being held back by gov’t regs more than tech… I expect to see them flying in my area in the next two to five years.”

Which brings me back to the real issue. Drones for use in the application of pesticides are being actively marketed to farmers eager to purchase and adopt this technology despite the fact there are only three pesticides currently registered for application by drones. All three are biological insecticides for mosquito control and are likely not the products being used by farmers who are already using drones.

Many farmers I spoke with thought that any pesticides labelled for aerial application can be used in a drone. Unfortunately, this is false but there is little incentive for salespeople to correct this misconception. In my experience, instead, it’s like there’s a buyer beware, “don’t tell if they don’t ask” sales tactic in use by drone vendors.

Worse yet, every player in this confusing situation seems to be pointing the finger at someone else for the label delays. It is a real catch-22.

So, who actually is responsible for reviewing, updating, harmonizing, and/or making regulatory changes that will enable farmers to operate drones? Here is what some invested parties have to say:

Farmers

First and foremost, a growing number of farmers are interested in using drones for pesticide application. Some already own drones and use them for field mapping, field scouting and personal fun. It’s natural to seek other applications for this technology on the farm.

Other farmers are intrigued by lower application costs. When a new drone equipped for pesticide application is four per cent of the price of a new high-clearance sprayer, farmers get interested fast.

For smaller-acreage farmers who cannot see ever being able to justify the cost of a high-clearance sprayer, a single drone might fulfill their needs.

Other attractions include eliminating wheel tracks and compaction and being able to navigate in the corners and small areas a lot more easily.

And then there’s maintenance. There’s a whole lot more that can go wrong on a million-dollar sprayer than on a drone. And, likely, the farmer can repair or replace faulty parts on a drone while the ground rig sits idle with a large tank full of product while the farmer waits for an expensive service call.

Some farmers aren’t prepared to wait for those changes and are using drones already.

Drone vendors

Drone vendors blame both government and industry for holding up official approvals for drone spraying and they seem to have no qualms about promoting the spray capability of their drones in order to build up farm pressure.

Even getting a fraction of farmers to buy spray-equipped drones would mean big new sales.

Drone suppliers focus on the much lower capital cost and the ability of a single drone to spray 25 to 40 acres an hour but there are other advantages as well. Less water is needed, the turnaround time for filling is quick, and there’s a safety benefit in having a maximum of 30 or 40 litres of product on board compared to a high clearance load of 800 to 1,600 gallons.

Besides, by changing the tank a drone can go from applying liquid pesticides to dry fertility products in minutes.

PMRA

Getting government regulatory approval for drone pesticide application is complex. All levels of government and a number of regulatory agencies evaluate, license, monitor, and ultimately enforce the Pest Control Act and its regulations.

Before any pesticide can be applied in Canada it must be approved by the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), a division of Health Canada. According to a PMRA spokesperson “Health Canada’s primary objective in regulating pesticides is to help protect the health of Canadians and the environment. All pesticides must undergo a rigorous science-based review before being approved for sale in Canada. Depending on the type of active ingredient and the data on file, pesticides may require drone-specific data; there are several value, health (both occupational and dietary exposure), and environmental data requirements that need to be met before drones can be added to the respective product labels.”

“Pesticide application by drone is only permitted if stated on the registered pest control product label. The registered product will state ‘Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems‘ and/or ‘RPAS’ on its label if permitted.”

At this time there are only three pesticides in Canada that are labeled as such and can be legally applied by a drone. They are the mosquito larvicide products mentioned above, which received federal approval for drone application in 2022 but are still held back by provincial restrictions.

These are all restricted class microbial products for use in mosquito control, not the pesticides farmers are likely to be applying.

The biggest roadblock is not the technology, but the lack of pesticides labeled for RPAS application. And because of the testing protocol required for this label amendment, changes to labels will not happen overnight, or even in the next year for most pesticides.

Data needs to be generated, packaged and sent to PMRA, after which PMRA typically needs one to two years to review – and sometimes more.

And until then, there are penalties for spraying products by drone that aren’t labeled for that use.

When I asked PMRA, I was told it would be a violation of the Pest Control Products Act. “Depending on the specific non-compliance situation,” the spokesperson said, “Health Canada has at its disposal a suite of enforcement tools.” Those include product seizures, fines and more.

PMRA is aware of farmer interest in drones and is already working with a number of national and international organizations studying pesticide applications with drones including OECD Drone/UASS Subgroup, the North American Remotely Piloted Aerial Application Systems (RPAAS) Working Group, the Unmanned Aerial Pesticide Application Systems Task Force (UAPASTF) spray drift trials, and the Agriculture and AgriFood Canada (AAFC) crop residue trials working group.

PMRA also points out they have a program to issue research authorizations, which could include research with drones for specific pest control products.

PMRA stresses too that they are not involved in regulating the marketing or sales of drones and that it is up to pesticide manufacturers to initiate pesticide label amendments for drone application.

Pesticide manufacturers

CropLife Canada represents Canadian manufacturers, developers and distributors of pest control products. Its president and CEO Pierre Petelle says: “Our members are actively working with PMRA on the use of drones for applying pesticides. There is definitely a place for this technology.”

Petelle says CropLife is working with PMRA to determine what data is needed to be collected to evaluate drone application of pesticides, but until anyone knows how much drone testing (such as spray pattern, drift and droplet size) will be needed, it isn’t possible to even put an estimate on when the first pesticides may be labelled for drone application.

Nor could he provide a cost estimate, although he says a rough ballpark estimate would about $1 million to get a ground-sprayer product approved for aerial application, and it would require data from a couple of growing seasons.

Petelle adds though that the U.S. is also working toward utilizing drones for pesticide application and CropLife Canada is working with regulatory agencies there to try to share knowledge and harmonize regulations.

Petelle notes PMRA has a lot on its plate besides drones but feels it needs to prioritize drone evaluation since drones are already in commercial use applying agriculture pesticides in countries including China, Australia and Argentina. He reports watching a video of a swarm of drones, numbering 30 wide, spraying a commercial field crop.

Aerial applicators

Shara Tardif, executive director of the Canadian Association of Aerial Applicators, feels farm show sales promoting drones for pesticide application border on false advertising. Her organization has raised its concerns with companies marketing drones. She feels farmers need to be informed that there are no herbicides or fungicides currently labelled for drone application.

She feels farmers should also be warned if they do apply a pesticide off label, they can face fines of thousands of dollars.

That said, Tardif says: “drones are coming. They are already being used in the U.S. where regulations are different.”

Tardif added her organization is not opposed to farmers using drones provided the user has the relevant pesticide applicator licensing and proper Transport Canada licensing to fly the drone, and also providing they follow the label. In fact, she feels some licensed aerial applicators may even invest in drones to use for spot spraying or in areas where because of field size, powerlines or other obstacles, fixed wing aircraft are not suitable.

Transport Canada

Transport Canada is responsible for all types of aircraft, including drones with specific criteria that would have an impact on a farmer wanting to use a drone to apply pesticides. When asked about using drones for pesticide application, a Transport Canada spokesperson stated: “All drone pilots operating in Canada must follow the rules set out in Part IX of the Canadian Aviation Regulations and are strongly encouraged to consult Transport Canada’s drone safety resources to ensure their operations are safe and legal. Under Part IX, all drones weighing 250 g to 25 kg must be registered and pilots must obtain a certificate for basic or advanced operations.

Pilots who wish to fly their drone outside of the rules of Part IX for a specific purpose must apply for a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) with permission to operate a drone for specific purposes under special conditions.

A SFOC is also currently required for operating a drone out of the line of sight, for drones weighing over 25 kg, and for drones carrying dangerous or hazardous payloads, which pesticides are likely to be considered. It can take up to a month or more to submit and receive a SFOC, which could have a severe impact on pesticide spray timing.

Additionally, federal, provincial, or territorial rules may apply to the dispersal of pesticides from drones. More details are available by Googling “Information Note Regarding the Use of Drones when Applying Pesticides.”

Fines for breaking Transport Canada RPAS regulations range up to $25,000.

Equipment manufacturers

The companies that manufacture ground and high-clearance sprayers also have an interest in the viability of drones. Adoption of this technology by farmers could have an impact on their business. However, when questioned as to what they feel the impact might be if drones are approved for pesticide application, all the major equipment companies declined to comment for this article.

The public

The greatest unknown in the issue of pesticide application by drones may be how receptive the public will be to drones applying pesticides.

The bottom line

If you are a farmer considering the purchase of a drone for applying pesticides on your fields… Buyer Beware! Even though you can legally purchase a drone capable of applying pesticide, there are no labelled agriculture pesticides a drone can legally apply in Canada, even on your own property.

This is unlikely to change soon. Off-label drone application by farmers will not speed up the licensing process and it may lead to the seizure of the drone and hefty fines. Worse yet, an accident with an illegal, pesticide-carrying drone could set back the approval process.

On the other hand, farmers should be lobbying government and especially the manufacturers of pesticides, in an effort to make the necessary research, testing and evaluation a priority so agricultural pesticide labels can be amended for drone application. Farmers interested in drone pesticide application need to express that interest to government and industry.

– This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue of Country Guide.

The post Summer Series: Drone spraying appeared first on Country Guide.

Recently, I filled in as a temporary replacement for a driver at another dealership, delivering and picking up equipment. There was a little over 40 years between those two jobs. The truck I used this time was a T800 Kenworth pulling a tridem RGN trailer with loads that have sometimes pushed the truck’s gross weight north of 80,000 pounds — with a permit, of course.

That’s how the scale of farm equipment has changed in my lifetime. And the farmer that took delivery of that earlier combine would laugh out loud at the sticker prices for new equipment these days.

Farm size and machinery expectations have grown significantly over the last 40 years. But not on every farm. There are still many farms without high-end machines and the crew of employees to operate them, including many that are more of a lifestyle operation with income supplemented from off-farm jobs. YouTube is full of vloggers who document their day-to-day adventures on those types of farms.

For many of these farmers, the idea of buying brand new equipment has become more of an aspiration than a reality. Instead, they’re making the most of used machinery.

New iron and new tech

Many years ago I had a conversation in Germany about how most young German farmers dreamed of one day owning a Fendt tractor. Fendts, at the time, were among the few tractors with a very high level of technology, and their price tag reflected that. It took young farmers quite a few years to build a big enough bank account to buy one.

Famers took pride in owning German-built machines. On top of the comfort and convenience Fendt offered, they were also a kind of status symbol.

While there’s nothing quite like that new cab smell — just like that new car smell — is it still practical for many farm operations to consider buying new? Or is it even necessary? An average high-horsepower MFWD tractor will be somewhere in the vicinity of $500,000, depending on horsepower. A new top-of-the-line combine or four-wheel drive tractor can easily top $1 million.

A machinery brand executive once made a comment to me that spelled out pretty clearly what manufacturers see as the big reason more farmers are quicker to trade in for new machines.

“All machinery built in the last decade or two can still go out into the field and do the job very satisfactorily,” he said. (I’d go so far as to stretch that age limit quite a bit further in many cases.) “Incorporating advanced technology into new equipment is what brands will need to do now and into the future to convince farmers to spend their money on the newest machines.”

New technology gives buyers something they don’t already have in their existing equipment. Brands are spending a lot on R&D to make machines smarter and to automate as many features as possible, with full automation on the horizon.

“Productivity and yield for farmers … that’s where our (R&D) investment is going,” said CNH Industrial’s CEO Scott Wine during a technology day presentation in the spring of 2023.

Smart machines and automation can help increase efficiency and raise yields for sure, but the trade-off is the price of admission, so to speak. And the net return, if any, will depend on each operation’s specifics and needs.

How old can you go?

The year-end numbers on a balance sheet are also important for those choosing older, lower-cost equipment. But there are other factors besides affordability.

New equipment under warranty is likely to perform pretty well with limited downtime. Although it’s likely, it’s not a given. I once bought a new tractor and after just 25 hours on the clock it had to go back to the dealer for a major rear-end overhaul due to faulty assembly at the factory. The model was so new some parts had to be shipped in from Europe. It spent weeks sitting at the dealership.

My case was obviously an extreme one. Typically, when a new machine breaks down, a dealership technician will soon head out to determine the problem and fix it on warranty. And that’s important in some operations. But that kind of reliability may come with significant stress associated with living with the size of loan or lease payments.

It all means the cost of ownership for new machines is predictable, but very high. By comparison, the cost of running used equipment is likely to be lower but not as predictable. An older machine might perform flawlessly one season and leave you stranded the next.

Is that a stress that’s more suited to your personality and farming considerations than losing sleep over a finance payment?

If choosing the used equipment option, the first thing to think about is how old do you want to go? Here’s an example of what needs to be considered.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers recently sold a 1982 875 Versatile tractor at a sale for $29,000. They also sold a 2017 400 Versatile for $355,000. Those are both within the price range you’d expect.

The two tractors have similar capabilities with horsepower ratings of 360 and 400, respectively. But they have very different purchase prices and probable reliability levels, not to mention comfort levels. Which will best meet your needs and fit your definition of an ideal purchase? Or are you operating on a scale that allows you to buy both and keep the old 875 in reserve for some jobs, just in case? Compared to the price of a single brand new 400 horsepower model, you’re likely still money ahead.

But consider that the 875 will have a Cummins engine with a mechanical injection pump. No pesky computer, sensors or emissions system to fail, causing the tractor to derate its power or quit completely. Computer, electronics and emissions systems are the most common failure points on modern machines of all types, and often only a dealership service department can identify those problems and correct them, because of the proprietary software needed to diagnose them.

The 875 won’t give you any of that trouble. And if you need to completely overhaul its 855 Cummins engine, the parts are still readily available with rebuild kits available for around $2,500.

The cost of an overhaul kit for the QSM11 Cummins in the 400 is similar, but it is an electronically controlled engine. That means the 875 overhaul might be simpler to tackle in their farm workshop for anyone who isn’t as skilled as a Red Seal mechanic.

If you’re more than a little handy with a set of wrenches, you could opt for the 875, invest some money in parts and time and get a pretty reliable machine for well under $50,000, a tiny fraction of the cost of a new tractor of similar size, although finding some replacement components for older machines may require hunting for a donor machine at one of the few remaining wrecking yards, or looking for a parts tractor on Kijiji.

In this case, investing in a very good and well-equipped farm shop makes a lot of sense.

On the other hand, for someone who isn’t that handy in the shop, the newer, lower-hour 400 may be the better bet, unless they have a good friend who just happens to be a diesel mechanic.

Old dogs, new tricks

Maybe you want some of that new technology that goes well beyond guidance, such as features on the seed drill like zone control to prevent overlaps, or variable rate capability. New machines will definitely give you that, but increasingly those kinds of features can be added to older equipment. Going old school doesn’t necessarily mean going without some level of technology.

Want to put GPS auto guidance on that 875, which didn’t come auto-steer ready from the factory? Outback Guidance, for one, can set you up with a bolt-on kit for between $10,000 and $15,000. Raven’s RCM (Rate Control Module) system can give a variety of older drills variable-rate capability, as long as they have hydraulic metering systems.

Getting RCM installed on drills may require some specialized assistance from companies like My Precision Ag Ltd. in Rocanville, Sask., which specializes in that.

“You can’t just take it out of the box, plug it in and go,” said Matthew Yanick, owner of My Precision, when I spoke with him this past summer. “You have to change some connections and that kind of stuff.

“There are more and more people wanting to upgrade tanks to get the newer technology.” he said. “They just want to be able to do what the new tanks can do.”

If you want to add sectional control to a drill, there are some after-market manufacturers, such as Romafa Metal Works in Arborg, Man., that build updated metering systems to accommodate that technology. Romafra offers new metering boxes for John Deere, Flexi Coil and Morris drills.

Of course, there are still older, cheaper seeding equipment options other than air drills that can get the job done efficiently and won’t put comparable hydraulic demands on a tractor. But they aren’t compatible with VR or sectional control technology. So once again the question is: “Will the rate of return justify the increased investment in implements to put behind the tractor?”

Increasingly, major brands are taking notice of the farming segment that can’t or won’t pay the kind of money they demand for a new machine. They’re starting to look seriously at the retrofit market as another revenue stream for their businesses. That’s good news for producers running older machines and wanting to get more out of them.

In his third-quarter earnings address to shareholders, AGCO president and CEO Eric Hansotia said the brand aims to offer “autonomous retrofit solutions” for grain cart hauling by 2025. It will also offer a retrofit targeted-spraying system by 2024 that will work on any brand of machine. That’s two full years ahead of the company’s goal of releasing the system as an OEM option on new sprayers.

John Deere, too, is offering a limited range of upgrades for its late-model S Series combines and sprayers to bring their features a little closer to the current range of machines.

For its part, CNH Industrial spelled out just how important precision farming technology will be to the company in the coming years. A good deal of their revenues will come from providing retrofit solutions to farmers.

“CNH Industrial’s full year 2022 agriculture net sales are expected to include an estimated $900 million contribution coming exclusively from precision technology components,” reads the company’s press statement from early 2023. “We forecast a 10 to 15 per cent annual growth rate across the next two to three years and are aggressively pursuing an estimated US$1 billion in 2023 net sales contribution from precision technology components. Precision technology components include technology contained in whole goods, retrofit components and Raven third-party sales.”

It means a good portion of the digital wizardry on the newest and shiniest machines can now be bolted on to older equipment. Is that food for thought?

– This article was originally published in the January 2024 issue of Country Guide.

The post Summer Series: Old machines,new technology appeared first on Country Guide.

The Stratus AirSprayer, a new drone tool unveiled by Saskatchewan-based Precision AI in July, is unlike anything she’s seen so far.

“I think they’ve got something really special,” says Meisser, who was invited to see the AirSprayer in action during field testing in New Mexico in May.

“There are a lot of things that make the Stratus AirSprayer unique,” she adds. “I think it will change how the farming community starts to think about managing crops. It’s going to shift some mindsets.”

The Stratus AirSprayer is different than the quadcopters and fixed-wing UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) typically associated with ag drones. Essentially, it’s a powered paraglider — one that can carry heavier loads and stay aloft much longer than conventional drones.

Daniel McCann, founder and CEO of Precision AI, says the advanced, autonomous aerial sprayer was designed to increase efficiency and maximize field time in the kind of large-acre farms found in Western Canada.

“Spray drones are great if you have 40 acres of onions or something like that,” says McCann. “But if you’ve got 10,000 acres of canola, good luck getting a small drone sprayer to cover that.”

The body of the Stratus AirSprayer is 3.25 metres (10 feet, eight inches) long, 2.1 metres (six feet, nine inches) wide and 2.25 metres (seven feet, five inches) high. It weighs 700 lbs. (318 kg) empty and can carry a payload of up to 833 lbs. (378 kg).

The machine has a three-blade propeller at the back powered by a Rotax 100-horsepower gasoline engine, and it relies on a 541-square-foot (50.3-metre) parachute or “soft wing” to stay aloft.

McCann acknowledges the Precision AI team was a bit worried at first about how the UAV’s parachute would go over, given that it’s so different.

But he says that really hasn’t been a concern, once farmers are shown how the Stratus AirSprayer works, and they can see how handling the parachute isn’t any harder than folding and unfolding a spray boom.

The flight speed of the AirSprayer is just under 40 m.p.h. (61 km/h) and it is able to take off from a farmer’s field as long as there is 350 to 500 feet (107 to 152 metres) of runway room available. When the job’s done, the hardware can be loaded onto a flatbed truck or a 12-foot trailer, and the canopy folded and packed up into an easy-to-carry travel bag.

The Stratus AirSprayer can carry 100 U.S. gallons (378 litres) of herbicide, fungicide or insecticide solutions, which according to Precision AI is almost 20 times more than smaller ag drones. A bigger payload means more time in the air and more acres covered in a day.

The gas-powered AirSprayer can fly up to five hours before refueling, which McCann maintains is an obvious advantage over electric drones. “Your typical spray drones, even the big ones, typically max out at about 10 minutes of airtime, then you’ve got to swap batteries and refill it,” he says.

All this can mean substantial savings for farmers. Precision AI maintains it costs less than $3 per acre to operate the Stratus AirSprayer, a fraction of the cost of traditional drone technology which it says ranges from $6 to $13 per acre.

The automated Stratus AirSprayer can do precise GPS-guided broadcast sprays in two interchangeable swath widths, one 18 feet (5.5-metre) wide and the other 30 feet (nine-metres) wide.

A Generation Two version of the AirSprayer, slated to be released soon after the Generation One model, will feature green-on-green spray capability, developed by Precision AI with the use of artificial intelligence and advanced computer vision.

McCann says even with its high-tech capabilities, the Stratus AirSprayer isn’t difficult to operate and maintain, adding to its appeal to farmers. “Except for the onboard AI system, everything can be fixed fairly easily.”

While the Stratus AirSprayer is designed to allow farmers to do large-scale aerial applications on their own, it isn’t meant to compete directly with crop dusters and other aerial spraying businesses. Instead, Precision AI views them as potential partners as the UAV is unrolled in the Canadian market.

That likely won’t happen right away, as the Canadian government hasn’t yet approved using drones in aerial applications of crop protectant products. Precision AI is on a committee to advise Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) on the necessary changes required to allow spraying from UAVs.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got the technology that can be used as an automated aerial sprayer. It’s built out, and we just need to wait for the regulatory environment to catch up,” says McCann.

Precision AI hopes the PMRA will follow the lead of U.S. regulators and release a decision soon approving the use of drones for ag chemical applications. In the meantime, Precision AI plans to continue testing in the U.S. as well as on farms in Western Canada as it prepares for a limited release of the Stratus AirSprayer next year.

Meisser views the AirSprayer as a good value proposition, both in terms of productivity and return on investment. She also sees it as a very practical solution for farmers looking to get the most out of their crops.

“The Precision AI team is really connected to the farming community and are trying to build solutions for farmers with farmers. I think that they’re solving problems that matter,” she says.

“I think they just got down to brass tacks to determine what does this (machine) really need to do.”

In Meisser’s eyes, it won’t take long for the Stratus AirSprayer to gain traction among farmers once it catches on with leading-edge ag adopters and influencers willing to give the technology a try.

“You just need some strong ambassadors to showcase the technology,” she says. “Farmers are the most innovative people I know. They solve problems on a daily basis, and it doesn’t take any of them too long to identify where they see value. I think they will embrace it.”

The post Paraglider powers a new kind of sprayer appeared first on Country Guide.

Day two of the NFMS saw Massey Ferguson debut its 500R sprayer to attendees, and New Holland was eager to show how its latest collaboration helps guide all of your harvested grains into a grain cart.

Heath Kehnemund, marketing product specialist with Massey Ferguson, says the company’s 500R sprayer is designed for ease of operation and requires less maintenance.

“One of the things that we do differently than a lot of our competitors on the market is we have a LiquidLogic system…” said Kehnemund, “at the end of the day if you get blown out or rained out we can actually bring that product back to the tank to be able to go out and spray the next day.”

To help keep problem areas to a minimum, greaseless bushings are standard on the 500R and the cab interior takes a common look-and-feel approach for operators.

“It’s a common cab across a lot of our platforms,” said Kehnemund, “A guy can go from one machine to another and be very comfortable.”

Automation ‘Raven’ swoops in

A second new announcement at the show for New Holland was its collaboration with Raven Industries for Raven Cart Automation.

The new automated system reduces operator error during the handoff of grain between a combine operator and a tractor operator during harvest.

“With the system set up, you have reduced chances of impact, reduced chances of grain spillage, reduced chances of operator error as a whole” said Nick Mortensen, technology marketing manager for New Holland.

Raven Cart Automation works via local radio frequency which provides no delay in connection between the combine and a tractor. The system also allows combine operators to call up to six grain carts at a time in order to keep things moving smoothly in the field.

Want to hear more? Watch for upcoming videos of the Massey Ferguson 500R sprayer and the New Holland Raven Cart Automation system coming soon to AgDealerTV.

The post New Massey Sprayer comes to NFMS, combines and grain carts get synchronized appeared first on Country Guide.

I also happened upon the Canada pavilion, packed with companies familiar to many of us, including Honey Bee, Mankato, Schulte and Bushel Plus.

The companies say that there’s value in companies from Canada banding together to create more of a splash than they could individually for show attendees from around the world.

There are also some Canadian agriculture companies that are growing quickly.

At Bushel Plus, founder and CEO Marcel Kringe says that his company has grown to 30 employees, as the business diversifies from technology to test harvest loss out the back of the combine, to buying Canadian company Mad Concaves, to training farmers all over the world, from Europe, to Canada, to the United States, to Australia on how to maintain and set their combine for greater productivity.

Not far from the Canada pavilion is another company with a Canadian connection – Vaderstad, which took over Seed Hawk, which manufactures in Langbank, Sask. Vaderstad launched a new seeder at Agritechnica, the Seed Hawk 600-900C.

Chris Bettschen, a Canadian from Saskatchewan, who manages Australia and New Zealand for Vaderstad, says the new seeder will be manufactured at Vaderstad’s  plant in Sweden, but will have components from the Canadian plant. This seeder will have a wider appeal around the world, including in other parts of Canada, than Seed Hawk drills did due to its slimmer available width and new Vaderstad electronics. However, it retains some of the Seed Hawk look – and its well-known openers.

Lots of green

John Deere has one of the largest displays and is organized in a new way, the focus on two production systems in agriculture – one for small grains – think tractors and tillage, planters, fertilizer spreaders, then sprayers and combines. On the other side of the display is livestock equipment.

My tour of John Deere’s display included updates to combine systems, including slope compensation, new belts for draper heads that catch more small-seeded grains and oilseeds, a review of the company’s autonomy plans and a close-up look at its 8R tractor with its E-IVT transmission that produces electricity, which then drives power needs of implements.

John Deere often commands the spotlight with new releases, but that’s not the case this year at Agritechnica.

– John Greig is a senior editor with Glacier FarmMedia. Watch for much more detail on these and many more stories and videos from Agritechnica in our Glacier FarmMedia newspapers and websites.

The post Agritechnica update: Canadian content and a John Deere update appeared first on Country Guide.

Vajdik works with his brother-in-law Adam Gurr running Agritruth Research and the family farm at Rapid City, Manitoba. In addition to pre-seed burnoff, they are testing green-on-brown settings to apply fungicide where needed on flowering canola and pre-harvest desiccant where needed on edible beans. Their sprayer also has green-on-green settings to target green weeds in a green crop, but that is a work in progress. “We’re trying to find ways to use the optical system for the whole season,” Vajdik says.

Vajdik doesn’t have formal tech training but did some programming in high school and university, and enjoys exploring technology to make life easier. “I like pushing boundaries.”

In 2022, the farm had fields with drowned out and thin areas. Vajdik wondered how he might use the optical spraying system to target fungicide to only those areas that had enough crop to justify the cost.

With the optical spraying system, cameras mounted every 10 feet along the boom take pictures constantly, and feed them to the computer that divides images into a grid and analyzes each grid for green. Grids that meet the operator threshold for greenness get sprayed. For example, with pre-seed burnoff, a sensitivity of three per cent means that anything green that fills three per cent or more of a grid will get sprayed.

This process of photo, analysis and spray happens in fractions of a second while the sprayer travels 15 mph across the field.

Vajdik figured he could use this for fungicide by setting the sensitivity to 99 per cent. Any grid filled 99 per cent or more with green would be sprayed. Any grid with less than 99 per cent green — perhaps due to smaller, thinner plants or drowned-out areas — would not get sprayed. It was a quick way to isolate thicker areas of the field most likely to provide a return on investment for the fungicide.

They tried it on one canola field in 2022. The field included an Agritruth study on fertilizer rates. “We didn’t want bad disease to skew the data,” Vajdik says. He filled the sprayer for 120 acres and ended up spraying 150, stretching the fungicide across an extra 30 acres. Vajdik says an operator could use the manual touchscreen on-off in drowned out areas, but the automatic option is easier and reduces operator fatigue.

With no drown outs in 2023, he didn’t need that flexibility. On-off fungicide is not necessary when crop is uniformly good (it all gets sprayed) or uniformly bad (nothing gets sprayed.)

With pre-harvest spray of Reglone on edible beans, however, Vajdik again tried the green-on-brown setting. Plants still green got the high rate. Dry brown plants got the low.

The sprayer

Gurr and Vajdik run an Agrifac, made in the Netherlands, mounted with a Bilberry optical system, made in France. Why Agrifac? It had the features they wanted, including a recirculating boom, individually controlled nozzles and super-stable suspension. “You need a perfectly stable boom for the cameras to work. This sprayer was good for our undulating fields,” Vajdik says.

Nozzles are on 10-inch spacing and each has pulse width modulation with a solenoid to control the rate. This feature not only keeps the rate consistent on turns and with varying ground speed, it also provides the rate control needed for optical spraying.

With a recirculating boom, plumbing loops back through the system to maintain pressure along the full length. With individual nozzle shut-off, sprayers with recirculating booms can be primed without spraying. It also aids in complete cleanout. Agrifac introduced this feature to North America; various European and North American sprayer companies followed soon after.

Tom Wolf, sprayer expert and owner of Agrimetrix, is a fan of recirculating booms, individual nozzle control and optical spraying. Says Wolf: “Stephen Vajdik and Adam Gurr have the opportunity to broadcast and spot spray at the same time with this sprayer, applying a low dose across the whole field and a high dose where it sees larger weeds.”

This can also apply to fungicide and pre-harvest applications, as Vajdik has shown.

Green on green

The Bilberry optical spraying system also offers green-on-green and the ability to pick out green weeds in a green crop. Vajdik says it can target broadleaf weeds in cereal crops and grassy weeds in broadleaf crops. Corn is one exception where it can target both broadleaf and grassy weeds in the space between rows.

Vajdik tried green-on-green in one broadleaf field, applying a blanket low rate of herbicide and hitting wild oats with the high rate. But most crops have both broadleaf and grassy weeds, and Vajdik doesn’t see economic sense in going over fields a second time to use the optical system for a targeted spray. “I don’t see much use for green-on-green until we have induction or injection to add chem into the line,” he says. With that feature, the sprayer could target the broad spectrum of weeds with the main tank and use the optical system to give specific weeds a shot of something extra.

Carl deConinck Smith has a R4045 John Deere sprayer equipped with direct injection and optical spot spray. With direct injection, he has a separate tank for the spot spray product and the system injects that second product directly into the spray booms as needed and at variable rates. However, the farmer from Fiske, Sask., still doesn’t see value in green-on-green at this time. “Green-on-green has only 70 to 85 per cent accuracy in targeting weeds within crop,” he says. “Missing 15 per cent of weeds is not good enough.”

He adds that green-on-brown is also only 85 per cent accurate, but tiny weeds missed with a green-on-brown pre-seed can be controlled by the in-crop spray.

Tom Wolf, at his website sprayers101.com, wrote about a new Greeneye sprayer with an optical spraying system as well as a second tank and second boom. The Greeneye sprayer can broadcast a residual product while spot-spraying a post-emergent product in one pass. In the U.S., where farmers are dealing with major threats from glyphosate-resistant weeds, especially Palmer amaranth and waterhemp, the ability to target these weeds with residual products in corn and soybeans makes dual tank green-on-green systems more valuable, Wolf says. “This is the American reality for soybeans and corn,” he says. “There is a slightly less stringent need for that up here at this time.”

Sprayer technology is advancing quickly, and green-on-green algorithms will get better at spotting individual species, not just grassy or broadleaf weeds. One solution, Vajdik says, would be for algorithms to identify key crops and spray every plant that isn’t crop. That will save the program having to identify hundreds of different weed species. Optical spraying systems could also create maps of specific target weeds to target with spot sprays or other integrated actions later in the year, or subsequent years.

The way sprayer cameras see will also improve. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which senses the greenness of crops, would work really well to assess the fungicide need for individual plants, deConinck Smith says, adding, “That’s where the camera system will be in the future.”

In the meantime, deConinck Smith, like Vajdik, has found ways to expand the use of green-on-brown. For example, he can use it for spraying larger perennial or winter annual weeds in just-emerged canola. With the settings high enough to skip the tiny emerged canola crops, he can apply a high rate of glyphosate to the target weeds without spraying the canola. This is particularly useful if the farm missed a pre-seed burnoff and needs to spray these large weeds with a high rate and as soon as possible.

DeConinck Smith farms over 10,000 acres, and he figures an 8,000-acre farm could pay off the $200,000 to $300,000 cost for an optical spraying system and specialized boom within two years based on the chemical saved for pre-seed burnoff alone.

“If you’re buying a new sprayer, this add-on is a no brainer,” deConinck Smith says.

Wolf says optical spraying systems have matured beyond the original hype. “With these technologies, we overestimate their value in the short term and underestimate in the long term,” Wolf says. “These models are just going to get better and better at detecting weeds. And we will get more innovative. I see a bright future for the technology with people like Stephen and Carl innovating new ways to apply it.”

– Jay Whetter is an agriculture journalist and communications manager for the Canola Council of Canada.

The post How optical sprayers do a whole lot more appeared first on Country Guide.

He was referring to a number of pressures manufacturers are feeling from global concerns affecting all brands and their customers — farmers in this case. Although he didn’t list those concerns by name, it’s easy to understand what he was referring to: supply disruptions, labour shortages, war, and the need for engineers to come up with powertrain solutions that will allow brands to deliver low- or zero-emissions machinery that can still do the job efficiently.

Showing off the results of that search for ever more efficiency was exactly what the Technology Day event was all about. Prototype and concept machines from the company’s two main brands, Case IH and New Holland, were lined up in fields at the Maricopa County location for attendees to learn about, with product specialists ready to talk about the cutting-edge tech built into them.

“What we’ve tried to do today is give you the opportunity to see our tech portfolio in its fullest, right out here in these fields,” Wine said. “The value is to see what we’re driving, where we’re going with our tech stack and how that’s going to benefit customers.”

‘Tech stack’

In case you haven’t heard it before, the term “tech stack,” which has become one of the buzz phrases in engineering and manufacturing circles these days, refers to the list of automation, connectivity and autonomous features engineers are now cramming into equipment.

Lately, that stack of technology has grown pretty tall at all the brands, because executives believe farmers will see a payback from all the features they offer. And as most brand executives see it, it’s the only way to deal with those brutal difficulties Wine mentioned.

“I think you’re going to see today how we can bring a focus on sustainability and value for our customers at the same time” Wine continued. “In that value, if we think about autonomy and precision, it helps offset some of the concerns we all have about getting the necessary labour. We have solutions that can help people get by with less labour or less-skilled labour.

“You’ll also see today the investments we’re making in sustainable fuels. The ability to drive a negative carbon footprint is very exciting, and it’s coming to life very, very quickly.”

Key to much of the digital wizardry on display, specifically in the autonomous machines, was the influx of technology CNH Industrial acquired when it purchased Raven Technology, and it’s a big part of the reason for the speed at which the company is now forging ahead to deliver next-level technology in Case IH and NH equipment.

“We are fully leveraging the Raven advantage as we accelerate our autonomy programs and enhance our tech stack capabilities, and deliver solutions faster,” echoed Parag Garg, chief digital product officer at CNH Industrial. “In just over a year, we’ve developed and deployed cutting-edge technology to the market that has been scaled across multiple farming operations at an exceptionally fast pace.”

Just how important is that accelerated pace of development in technology for CNH? The company actually spelled it out pretty clearly for the benefit of the financial journalists who also attended the Technology Day.

“CNH Industrial’s full year 2022 agriculture net sales are expected to include an estimated $900 million contribution coming exclusively from precision technology components,” reads the company’s press statement. “We forecast a 10 to 15 per cent annual growth rate across the next two to three years and are aggressively pursuing an estimated US$1 billion in 2023 net sales contribution from precision technology components.”

According to Garg, CNH’s two brands will be improving the connectivity and analytics packages they make available to farmers as well as using Raven’s tech to build on the two brands’ “existing modular architecture.”

Autonomous tillage

So just exactly what machines were company execs prepared to show to the media?

The Case IH Trident 5550 autonomous spreaders were there, but they were unveiled months earlier. However, there was another new fully autonomous project on display, the Case IH tractor capable of conducting tillage operations on its own.

“We’re really excited about it,” Garg told Country Guide. “We had customers utilizing the product last season, so we’re excited to demo that publicly.”

There was also the Driver Assist Harvest Solution driverless grain cart. The combine operator can summon the tractor and grain cart when needed, and can control it as it pulls alongside the combine.

Raven had showcased the driverless grain cart on its website as a project in development for several months prior to the Case IH acquisition, so it’s not surprising to see that system appearing in one of the CNH brands. The autonomous DOT seeder thaoriginally created by Saskatchewan-based SeedMaster was purchased by Raven, and Garg says it remains under development. But there are no firm plans for a release date.

Then there was the NH large square baler that uses LiDAR to scan the swath ahead for size and density, using that data to control the tractor speed and steering as well as adjusting baler settings.

Quick recharge

Tech Day had news on pending global emissions standards. The battery-electric 120-horsepower T4E tractor made its public debut.

“It has a 70-watt battery,” Marc Kermish, chief information and interim chief technology and quality officer, told Country Guide. “It has a dual 24 (battery) pack and will be cooled so we can do high-speed charging. So we can reduce that charge time to about an hour for an 80 per cent recharge. The pack itself will be able to support an e-motor peak of up to about 120 horsepower. A speed of about 40 km/h and a max torque of about 440 Nm (325 foot-pounds). We can get about eight usable hours of time out of that battery.”

To support further development of electric drive technology CNH has opened a new R&D centre in Detroit, Kermish said.

“What we opened in Detroit was our electrification centre, which is where all of our engineering team sits. We have prototyping capability there. We can build prototypes, assemble battery packs, but it’s not an actual manufacturing site. As we near production we’re still sourcing the battery with our design packaging from a third party. We will be manufacturing them in Detroit with a partner called Rousch Industries.”

But an electric drive system isn’t the only cutting edge feature the T4E has built into it. It is also a fully autonomous-capable tractor. But how did the brand come to the decision to incorporate both of those features into the T4E?

“We went out and talked to our customers,” Kermish explained. “It was important to our customers. There’s a premium component as you’re bringing in new technology. Certainly our customers and farmers are sensitive to what those premium prices are. So our basic feedback was, ‘If you’re doing electric just for the sake of electric, and you’re going to charge me a premium for that, I’m not sure I get the same value. My real problem isn’t solving for emissions. The real problem is solving for productivity and input costs.’ It only made sense after getting that customer feedback to add that autonomous feature set.”

Methane and LNG

There was more news on the alternative fuels front. New Holland displayed a pre-production prototype methane- and LNG-fuelled model for its T7 tractor line.

Summing up his address to the crowd, Scott Wine said, “The biggest takeaway I’d like to see is, I think what you’re going to see is how much impressive and incredible capability we currently have.”

That’s a message I keep hearing from all brand executives who’ve been emphasizing it loudly and clearly recently, as each brand showcases it advancing technologies. More technology, they say, will be important to farmers in order to allow them to meet future demands on reducing emissions and inputs while coping with climate change, all while remaining profitable.

But there’s one more reason to turn to high technology, and it may be the strongest driver for manufacturers. One brand executive at another event a while ago made a comment that spelled it out pretty clearly. “All machinery built in the last decade or two can still go out into the field and do the job very satisfactorily,” he said. “Incorporating advanced technology into new equipment is what brands will need to do now and into the future to convince farmers to spend their money on the newest machines.” 

The post CNH shows off its new farm tech appeared first on Country Guide.

That would be a great opportunity to give designers your two cents’ worth as their machine design evolves, not to mention determining if the machine actually adds any real value to your operation.

In fact, that is how all brands have traditionally field-tested prototype equipment, and the Fahlman family was recently given such a chance. The machine they helped evaluate is like very few others that have made their way onto working farms. Case IH and its affiliate Raven brand delivered a Case IH Trident 5550 fully autonomous fertilizer spreader to their farm, and the Fahlmans operated it across about 4,500 acres during the 2022 season.

“This opportunity kind of popped up through conversations with Raven to begin with,” Keenan Fahlman told Country Guide. “One thing led to another. They were looking for on-field experiences with real-world farmers, not more test plot-type things.”

Keenan and his son Brady, who operate a family farm near Holdfast, Sask., remain involved in ongoing field trials of the Trident, and that has given them the opportunity to dive headfirst into the emerging world of autonomous farming.

Thoughts on autonomy

Both were invited to Maricopa County, Arizona, in early December to participate in Case IH’s Technology Day, where the brand publicly introduced several automated and autonomous machine concepts to media. Brady was invited on stage to discuss using the autonomous Trident, what the Fahlmans thought of it, and perhaps more importantly, what they think of the entire concept of autonomous farming.

“When we had the opportunity this year to demo the Trident with the Raven autonomy, we were very excited,” he told the attendees. “I was able to sit in my half-ton this fall and watch that Trident go up and down the field with no one in the cab, and it was the best moment I’ve had in my short farming career.”

However, safety protocol for testing required a person to remain in the cab as a failsafe in case anything went wrong.

As exciting as it was to watch an autonomous field machine working, the realization of what that technology has to offer made a significant impression on Brady and his father. Brady spoke about how it can enhance the operation’s efficiency overall.

“A lot of the conversation around autonomy focuses on labour,” he said. “And it’s true. Seasonal labour for us is hard to find. Autonomy for us is just the next step to improve efficiencies on our farm. If we can get guys out of the cab and we can use the labour we already have more efficiently … such as getting grain off the field more quickly, that’s really what we’re looking for.

“As the equipment has gotten so good and so big, we are more focused on logistics and support of that equipment. When you take guys and put them in the cab for 12 hours, we’re just not using labour that efficiently. That’s a big reason why we want (autonomy) on our farm.”

But will all or even most producers see the value in the near term? Will they be willing to pay what will almost certainly be a premium for autonomous equipment?

Keenan thinks the widespread adoption of emerging autonomous technology by farmers will likely be slow to start, in a way similar to how other advanced features on equipment have eventually become commonplace over his farming career. There will be skepticism at first, but when the advantages become obvious, producers will take to them en masse.

“In the mid-2000s when the first GPS systems came out,” he recalled, “everybody said ‘what a waste of time, that’s what you have a steering wheel for.’”

And he thinks the most efficient way for those who do invest in autonomous machines to integrate them into their operations will be to blend them with existing conventional farming operations.

“It’s not like you’re going to sit in an office and send out a fleet,” he said. “It’s more the ability to have a second or third machine working with you at the same time. That’s what we did, a lot of that type of testing. Using it in combination with what you already have is kind of a nice way to look at it. This is a starting point.”

Getting prepared

Getting ready to use the autonomous Trident required some preparation. Suitable field maps had to be created to determine its operational boundaries. Fields with the fewest obstacles proved to be the easiest to set up for the unmanned machine.

“We had no previous mapping done to match this,” Keenan said. “So we sent out our side-by-side outfitted with the same Slingshot (GPS) system so we could do a pre-map of it. On our farm we talk about making things autonomous-ready, removing rock piles, making certain fields a little more user-friendly for that machinery. The more your fields are not perfect, for example if you have multiple rock piles, water runs, trees — that’s going to limit it. There’s no doubt about that.”

The Fahlmans also used their own Patriot sprayer to create field maps to transfer to the Trident, which allowed it to simply work within those confines while an operator worked in a conventional machine in a nearby field.

“We were able to do the boundaries with it (the Patriot) and send the boundaries to the Trident,” he said “It takes off and goes in the middle and I’m in the other field right beside it. So there’s a lot of simple processes that can be repeatable with that unit.”

Unmanned tillage

At the Case IH Technology Day, brand executives also talked about an autonomous tractor capable of unmanned tillage that they will introduce in the future. Although most Prairie operations are zero till or minimum till these days, Keenan still sees value in what that type of autonomous machine can do.

“Here’s the applications we talked about,” he explained. “For example, we seed a lot of pulses, so we have a unit in the field that’s rolling behind (the drill). We run two drills, so you could have that second unit running (a drill), or pulling the land roller behind you.

“And there are other options. Put it on a set of harrows for those guys that want to harrow. The technology has gotten so good we see a big fit for it down the road in multiple applications.”

Will the Fahlmans buy a machine like the autonomous Trident when Case IH makes one available? The answer, said Keenan, is a definite yes. And Brady is in full agreement.

“We’re all excited about the future, and we’re ready to go,” he told the crowd at the Technology Day. “We’re ready to get the autonomy; we’re ready to get the tech. We want it on our farm. We can see the benefits and how it’s going to help us. We just want it as fast as we can get it. Not even for growth, but to do a better job of what we’re doing right now; autonomy and all this tech to us is necessary.”

The post Putting autonomous machinery to the test appeared first on Country Guide.

CNH Industrial, owner of the Case IH and New Holland brands, announced May 23 it has bought Specialty Enterprises, which is billed as North America’s biggest maker of aluminum spray booms for farm applications as well as boom accessories such as cradles, swing arms, transoms and bracketry.

Specialty, which has one plant at Wautoma, about 130 km southwest of Green Bay, has been a supplier to Case IH since 2020, CNH said. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

“The direct ownership of spray boom production is the latest step in Case IH’s strategic road map for its sprayer product platform,” CNH said, and the use of “longer, lighter” booms has allowed for “accelerated development and deployment” of new technologies.

Aluminum spray booms are up to 50 per cent lighter than their steel counterparts, CNH said, making for better weight distribution and less field compaction and rutting.

Specialty, which started in 1987 as a welding and fabrication job shop, tacked to specialize in sprayer boom manufacturing by 2010, designing the Legacy line and, in 2015, the “ultra-durable” Millennium line of booms used by manufacturers including Deere, Agco, Hagie and Buhler Versatile, among others.

Specialty’s sprayer boom design incorporates multiple patents to “virtually eliminate” the fatigue cracking associated with other aluminum boom designs, CNH said, noting the aluminum used in Specialty products is both sourced and extruded in the U.S. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post CNH buys spray boom manufacturing capacity appeared first on Country Guide.

Those words are no exaggeration. How chemicals are applied on farm fields in developed countries across the planet is poised to change pretty significantly. Growers everywhere will need to prepare for that future.

“Political pressure has grown in regards to farming,” he continued. “It’s driven not just by governments, but individuals and NGOs. And it brings a broad challenge”

Nowhere is that more true than in Europe, so it’s no surprise much of the R&D going on in application equipment is coming, at least in part, from European manufacturers and tech firms. But the pressure is building everywhere. Pending or proposed chemical use regulations are already many and varied.

“In almost every different country we have a national action plan that is being rolled out regarding chemical spraying,” Coopman said. “Canada has a Pesticide Risk Reduction Program. The U.S. has the Integrated Pest Management system, and we could go on for hours. The list of every country or every state almost follows its own routes.”

Coopman was one of three executives speaking to farm journalists at the online press event. And he also had some product news to reveal, as Agrifac moves toward meeting the challenge of a much more restrictive future for chemical application. In partnership with sister company Exxact Robotics, it will introduce 3S, a factory-installed, green-on-green spot spraying option on its 2022 model year sprayers. (Green-on-green refers to the ability of a system to identify weeds in a green, growing crop and selectively spray only them.) Other sprayer brands owned by Agrifac and Exxact Robotics’ parent company, Exel Industries Group, will eventually get the technology too. Those include Apache and Hardi, which are names familiar to North American growers.

“In order to meet the 50 per cent reduction of chemicals and the 20 per cent reduction of fertilizer by 2030 (in Europe), the 3S technology is essential,” Coopman said. “We have entered into a new era of spraying. Achieving 50 per cent reduction in chemicals will be the law in the EU. 3S will be essential in meeting these targets. The U.S. and Canada will follow, not just because the law requires it, but because the economics are better.”

But while Coopman’s firm stands out as one of the first brands out of the starting gate with that level of sophisticated commercial sprayer technology, it’s not surprising that nearly everyone in the application business is chasing the same goal.

In March, John Deere announced it is adding See and Spray Select as an option on its 400 and 600 Series SP sprayers. However, at the moment that remains a green-on-brown technology. (Green-on-brown refers to the ability to identify growing plants only in a fallow field.)

“Fallow ground spot-spraying is only the beginning of the John Deere See Spray journey as we help farmers transition from field, to zone, to row, and now to individual plant spraying,” said Joel Basinger, marketing manager for Deere. “John Deere continues working on future solutions that will meet additional customer needs beyond See Spray Select. These solutions will leverage foundational See Spray technology to provide value for both pre- and post-emerge applications in crops such as corn, soybeans and cotton.”

Then in May, AGCO revealed it, too, is chasing advanced spot spray technology. The company announced it has teamed up with Robert Bosch GmbH, BASF Digital Farming, Xarvio Digital Farming Solutions and Raven Industries to create a sophisticated green-on-green system, and it’s currently involved in a “proof of concept” effort. In other words, it’s in field trials. 

Those trials were taking place in Europe, but the brand said the program would be expanded to include a North American component sometime in 2022.

“This effort is aimed at validating the targeted spraying solutions, delivering a reduction in product use to achieve the same results as broadcast spraying in both pre- and post-emergence with the flexibility of spraying day or night,” said Seth Crawford, senior vice-president and general manager, Precision Ag and Digital at AGCO.

When it comes to developing very sophisticated technology, especially involving artificial intelligence, it’s common for the major brands to look for outside help from specialty tech firms or even relatively new startups, which could then easily be bought and taken into the corporate fold.

“The expertise of each organization will undoubtedly provide industry-changing solutions for some of agriculture’s greatest challenges,” said Dominic Walkes, Raven Applied Technology’s director of strategic initiatives. “This smart spraying proof of concept is the first of many that will aid in advancing solutions for a more sustainable future.”

In the case of spinoff firm Exxact Robotics, Excel Industries Group started that organization especially for the purpose of pursuing tech advancements. “We created Exxact Robotics two years ago, with a mission of breakthrough innovation for each of the Exel Group brands,” said Yves Belegaud, CEO of Exel Industries Group, whose company has now become the third-biggest filer of patents in France.

“Right now it (Exxact Robotics) is a company focused on innovation, specifically disruptive innovation,” said Colin Chaballier, CEO of Exxact Robotics. “We’re located near Paris. We have a team of 25 engineers and PhDs targeting mechatronics and AI perception topics, and they are working with 100 engineers from partner companies.”

Another young startup, Israel-based Greeneye Technology, which claims Syngenta among its list of corporate partners, has launched a retrofittable green-on-green system that is compatible with most major brand sprayers. It held its initial commercial launch in its home country in 2021. Now it’s moving on to North America with limited commercial distribution for 2022. It plans to initially work with midwestern corn and soybean growers before expanding to other states in 2023.

“Crucially, the system is designed to integrate seamlessly into any brand or size of commercial sprayer, removing the need for farmers to invest in new machines,” says the company’s announcement. “It also ensures that precision spraying can be carried out at the same travel speed as broadcast spraying, 20 km/h, ensuring no reduction in productivity for farmers.”

“The next generation of our technology, which is already in development, will also be capable of precisely spraying chemicals such as fungicides and micronutrients, increasing savings to farmers beyond herbicides,” said Greeneye Technology’s CEO Nadav Bocher.

But with systems that rely on pinpoint spray accuracy, sprayer features such as boom stability control will play a crucial role. Said Exxact Robitocs’ Chaballier. “It’s about working with engineers to integrate the equipment onto the boom.”

In-cab integration is big too. The best way to do that, said Chaballier, is to work directly with a sprayer manufacturer to prevent a repeat of the cab clutter that growers experienced a decade ago trying to blend implement electronic control systems with tractors. 

Said Chaballier: “Now the challenge for all manufacturers is to reduce the number of interfaces … All this integration is only possible if you are working with a sprayer manufacturer.” 

The post Sprayer designs save the day appeared first on Country Guide.