John Deere launches See & Spray Select

Making every pass in the field more economically feasible and optimizing the systems with which they farm is paramount for farmers. To help farmers achieve that, John Deere is investing in technology that ensures every plant has an equal opportunity to be as robust as it can be in the field while using the least amount of inputs possible.

Acquired by John Deere in 2017, See & Spray is a pioneering approach that uses computer vision and machine learning to precisely spray herbicides only where weeds are present. “From a functional as well as a value standpoint, See & Spray technology is a great building block in helping farmers reduce chemical use, and spot on with where we wanted to invest,” says Julian Sanchez, director, emerging technology, John Deere.

Its first commercially available product, See & Spray Select, can help farmers reduce their nonresidual, preemerge herbicide use by 77% on average by targeting and spraying only weeds on fallow ground. The technology also enables farmers to use more expensive and complex tank mixes more efficiently than they can broadcast, reducing their costs, improving their ability to control herbicide-resistant weeds at a lower cost.

“Farmers battling herbicide resistance in their fields can now utilize more expensive and complex tank mixes and achieve a more effective weed kill at a lower cost than they could in the past because they are only applying products on targeted weeds vs. the entire field,” says Joel Basinger, marketing manager for John Deere. “Research has shown that weeds sprayed with complex tank mixes with more than two modes of action are 83 times less likely to develop herbicide resistance.”

A 400 or 600 Series sprayer equipped with See & Spray Select, which is built on the bedrock of John Deere ExactApply, enables farmers to have two effective, time-saving sprayers in a single machine.

“If the job requires it, an operator can easily switch to broadcast spraying without leaving the sprayer’s cab,” Basinger says. “When finished with fallow spot spraying and a postemergence broadcast application needs to be made with the same tank mix, John Deere ExactApply can be used and can save up to 5% in broadcast chemical costs.”

See & Spray Select is available as an option on model year 2022 and newer John Deere 400 and 600 Series sprayers, which includes the 408R, 410R, 412R, 612R, and 616R.

Basinger says fallow ground spot spraying is only the beginning as it helps farmers transition from field, to zone, to row, to individual plant spraying. “John Deere continues to work on future solutions that will meet additional customer needs beyond See & Spray Select,” he says. “These solutions leverage foundational See & Spray technology to provide value for both pre- and postemerge applications in crops like corn, soybeans, and cotton.”

See & Spray Select can be ordered beginning June 2, 2021.