Move over, green-on-ground spray technology: green-on-green is here.
And not just any green, John Deere green.
Kaylene Ballesteros, product manager with John Deere, took RealAgriculture’s Kara Oosterhuis for a tour of the tech at Commodity Classic at New Orleans, Louisiana, last week.
“This here is our See & Spray Ultimate. That is our in-season solution on corn, cotton, and soybeans. It also has our dual product solution on it as well,” Ballesteros says.
How does it actually work?
She explains that the cameras are seamlessly integrated into the 120-foot boom. The cameras “see” about 2100-square feet per second at a time, and the processors “think” and decide, is this crop or is this weed? Then, based on the exact apply technology that has the on/off capability at the nozzles, it sprays all in a blink of a second, Ballesteros says.
Full canopies can present a challenge, however, she says that if a human can see a weed, so can the See & Spray Ultimate.
Camera settings is key, as the operator can adjust cameras to have different angles so see they don’t have tunnel vision.
The See & Spray comes with a dual product option, on either a 1,000-gallon tank or a 1,200-gallon tank; both have a split-tank option.
“What allows you to do is have two completely independent mixes in your tank that spray at the same time. You can spray a broadcast and a targeted spray. If you want to spray residual and a non-residual herbicide [you can],” she says. It means you could also use a fungicide and a herbicide as well through the targeted spray. You could do those two passes in one, but keep products separate in the tank.
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