PRECISION SPRAY TECHNOLOGY

Spend less on herbicide at what cost?

By Craig Manness

Precision agriculture has been the buzz for the past 15 years and with the rise of AI and its varying benefits, spot spray (or by other names: smart spray, precision spray, or targeted spray) is the newest technology being developed and pushed by equipment companies. But like a lot of the AI technology out there, is it going to help farmers or hurt them?

Three notable systems have hit the market lately: WEED-IT from Croplands Equipment, the See & Spray Ultimate from John Deere,

One Smart Spray from a collaboration between BASF and Bosch, and a retrofit-focused version from Greeneye Technology. It’s clear this technology will save farmers money on herbicides, in one case using 97 percent less chemical on a test field in Olds, Alberta, but conveniently the yield numbers were left out of this trial. So, is the cost-saving worth the potential in yield or quality loss?

Additionally, these systems often come exclusively to the onlooker in a subscription-based model with fees that may make it impossible for the average farmer. Minimally, what you are saving in herbicide costs, you will likely be paying by subscribing to this technology.

Tom Wolf, spray application specialist and co-owner of Agrimetrix Research and Training in Saskatoon, says that while he sees it as a “transformational technology,” the systems’ costs likely put them beyond the realm of small-to-moderate farmers, especially if subscription fee models are adopted.

There are other challenges with the new technology as well. Spray boom stability is one of the most notable issues farmers have had with these systems. For the accuracy the system requires, booms have to have no more than a 10- to 12-inch sway and be a maximum of 26 inches above the ground. Sprayers also need to stick to a maximum speed of 24 km/h with some maxing out at 19 km/h. Rolling hills and uneven ground will also be an issue for these systems.

Agronomically, there are challenges this technology might miss as well.

With the advancements in herbicide technology, many herbicides offer residual weed control which control later flushes of weeds in crop. With precision spray technology, it targets green weeds and leaves. The chemical isn’t used in places where there aren’t currently weeds, so it is not sprayed in areas where weeds could be coming, and the residual herbicide could have controlled them.

Additionally, in fields with herbicide resistant weeds, which is most fields in Western Canada, the lack of residual herbicides could also allow for resistant weed escapes that may not be manageable in crop with a lesser herbicide.

This technology also poses the problem of what to do with the extra chemical left in the tank if 97 per cent less is used on the field. How does someone dispose of 500 litres of unused product? And if it’s just being disposed of, wouldn’t you rather use it on the field?

The machinery industry is focused on selling their technology on the basis of farmers cutting input costs; however, agronomically these cost-cutting measures may be a mistake. Weed resistance is getting worse and the last thing farmers need is for the hype of technology with the promise of cutting input costs when it actually creates revenue loss from lower yields.