John Deere Launches First Product In The See & Spray Portfolio
Since its acquisition of Blue River Technologies in 2017, John Deere has made it publicly known of its intent to develop plant-by-plant application solutions. Now, the company is introducing the first product in its See & Spray lineup---See & Spray Select, which is the result of a development partnership with University of Southern Queensland in Australia.
See & Spray Select is a factory installed option available on the new 400 and 600 Series sprayers.
“We are launching our first product in the See & Spray lineup, and this will be a journey,” Basinger says. “We’ve been waiting on be able to introduce this first product, and there will be lots of things to talk about in the next two, three, and four years.”
In this initial production introduction, John Deere is focusing See & Spray Select to be used in rotations that include chemical fallow acres—and in the North American markets that means primarily in the western plains and pacific northwest.
“This system today doesn’t distinguish weed from crop, it doesn’t distinguish different greens,” Basinger says.
The technology detects a growing plant and selectively sprays a targeted application at 12 mph. The See & Spray system captures field images with 36 cameras across a 120’ boom (27 cameras on a 90’ boom), and collects application as-applied maps and data.
If the owner wants, they can switch over from See & Spray to broadcast spraying with a switch in the cab. Basinger says this makes John Deere stand out as the only OEM spraying manufacturer to offer a factory-installed spot spray and broadcast solution in one machine.
Per research across 75,000 acres, See & Spray Select can provide an average reduction of non-residual, pre-emerge herbicides by 77%, which could allow farmers to reallocate those previous input expenses to other areas of their operation and the system will allow growers to use more complex tank mixes than were available in the past.
“We used to farm on a field, then it went to zones, and then rows, and our goal is to be managing plant-by-plant,” Basinger says. “We want to use sensing technologies to identify weeds and potentially diseases. There is a lot that artificial intelligence will open up.”
John Deere says it’s working with multiple development partners in this space, including the team at Blue River Technologies.
