This year’s weather has had many farmers second guessing each and every spray pass, from pre-seed burndown, to in-crop control, and now fungicide treatments.
Tom Wolf, with Sprayers 101 and AgriMetrix, says that the spray input decisions has been especially difficult with the funny rainfall patterns experienced by much of Saskatchewan and other parts of the Prairies.
“We’ve now got a two-stage crop,” Wolf says. Farmers need to know if a spray pass is worth it, how to stage the crop, and which stage to target (for weed or disease control).
Of all the years, a year like this one makes variable rate technology and technology such as the WEEDit make sense.
“One farmer who had the WEEDit said it made that decision so much easier,” Wolf says, as the spray-on-sight system can save product and time by only targeting weeds that are germinated and of a certain size.
Imagery is key when it comes to variable rate tech, and Wolf says the evolution from satellite imagery to drones makes sense, but there are still resolution issues to resolve.
“So the sensor mounted on the spray boom may in fact be the next big thing,” Wolf says. WEEDit is a start for this technology, but there are and will be more offerings to come.
Hear from Tom Wolf discussing technology potential, return on investment, and the training and time investment required to make tech worth it, in the audio segment below:
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