View from the Cab: Impressive as always
By: Kent Casson
I am always impressed with the Precision Planting Winter Conference and this year was no exception.
Last week’s annual event at Tremont revealed the latest technology in ag and the company’s entrance into the sprayer market. Projects were focused on improving operations and data collection of sprayers. Farmers attending Winter Conference received tips, research findings and new product announcements.
“Precision Planting is for farmers who Believe in Better and nowhere is that more apparent than at the annual Winter Conference,” said Precision Planting marketing manager Bryce Baker. “With today’s sprayer announcements, Precision Planting expands our focus of challenging the status quo into crop sprayers, along with existing lines for planters, combines, seeders and side-dress bars.”
One of the new products is the ReClaim boom priming and recirculation, which uses a single switch in the cab to engage circulation and once completed, farmers are ready to spray with the correctly mixed chemicals across the entire boom. Another debut includes the Symphony nozzle control system which allows a sprayer to maintain constant pressure even when changing rates or speeds.
Several vision-based technologies were also announced at Winter Conference. New vision guidance steers sprayers in the crop rows, allowing the operator to focus on sprayer operations and not steering. This prevents the sprayer from running over crops and reduces operator fatigue. Vision scouting provides farmers with a snapshot of their stand count in the field and information on how evenly crops emerged, letting them know if there are areas in a field that should be closely monitored.
Vision-based weed identification uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to see and categorize each plant seen in the field as a crop, broadleaf, weed or grass weed. Also, targeting spraying technology is designed to pair with the Precision Planting vision module for targeted spraying.
“We are actively researching the best way to spot spray growing weeds while at the same time laying down a blanket residual herbicide in order to control emerging weeds while at the same time laying down a blanket residual herbicide in order to control emerging weeds,” notes Jason Stoller, Vision product manager for Precision Planting.
Precision Planting is well known for its unique and proven approach to addressing the current agronomic issues facing farmers and providing practical educational resources for improvement. The company focuses on developing smart products which improve planting, liquid application, harvest and spraying operations on farms across the world.
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