Precision Spraying Technology
Precision Planting has expanded their product line, now entering into the spraying market, with the development of three new products. Continuing their focus of challenging the status quo in farming.
This year has seen many agricultural companies introduce new technologies and make technological advancements across the whole sector. Precision Planting has been no exception, this year announcing its entry into the sprayer market, expanding their focus of challenging the status quo into crop sprayers, along with existing lines for planters, combines, seeders, and sidedress bars.
Focused on improving the operation and data collection of sprayers, Precision Planting revealed at their annual Winter Conference, three new spraying products that will combine multiple technological solutions, including Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and data science.
ReClaim Boom Priming and Recirculation
Traditional sprayers require farmers or operators to spray product to the ground to prime the width of the boom fully. Many times, more than 180 litres of product is sprayed, causing a hot spot of chemicals. With ReClaim added to sprayers, chemicals mixed in the tank can be circulated through the booms and back to the tank, never having to spray a drop of chemical to the ground.
Designed to be retrofit onto a farmer’s existing sprayer with either electric or standard nozzles, ReClaim uses a single rocker switch in the cab to engage recirculation, and once recirculation is completed, farmers are ready to spray with the correctly mixed chemical across the entire boom.
Symphony Nozzle Control System
When spraying to kill weeds or diseases, it is important to get consistent spray patterns across the field, even when changing speeds or rates. Many sprayer nozzles have a change in pressure when sprayer operating speed or rate are changed. This change in pressure changes droplet sizes, increasing the risk of drift or reducing leaf coverage of the spray, resulting in reduced efficacy. The Symphony nozzle control system allows the sprayer to maintain consistent pressure across the boom even when changing rates or speed.
Vision Based Technologies
Precision Planting has also announced multiple applications of cameras on a sprayer.
- Vision-Based Guidance: Post spraying crops is a high-fatigue job on the farm, often with the operator hand driving the sprayer to keep from running over crops. Vision guidance steers the sprayer in the crop rows, allowing the operator to focus on sprayer operations and not on steering, all while preventing running over crops and providing a significant reduction in operator fatigue.
- Vision Scouting: One of the best times to check for even crop emergence and stand counts is when most farmers make a post-emergence spray pass. Vision-based scouting will provide farmers with a snapshot of their stand count in the field and information about how evenly the crops emerged, letting them know if there are areas of the field to which they should pay more attention.
- Vision-based Weed ID: Vision-based weed ID uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to see and categorize each plant seen in the field as a crop, a broadleaf weed, or a grass weed. With this information, a map of weed pressure can be created that allows farmers to understand the type of weeds and the variability in pressure across the field.
- Targeted spraying technology: Precision Planting’s Symphony Nozzle control system is being designed to pair with the Precision Planting vision module for targeted spraying.
As the Precision Planting Premier Dealer for both Australia and New Zealand, Precision Seeding Solutions is excited for these products to move out of beta testing and enter into the AUS & NZ markets. Sticking to the motto of “Simple Technology to Maximise Your Farm” these new products will complement existing products to help farmers maximise more areas of their operations.
To get more information and the latest updates for when these products become available, register your interest by filling out the form below.