A limited production of John Deere’s debut green-on-green See & Spray Ultimate targeted spraying system will be available for order later this year.
Deere launched See & Spray Ultimate March 3.
The factory-installed system consists of 36 cameras mounted on a 120-foot boom to detect weeds among corn, soybeans and cotton using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Blue River Technology, an artificial intelligence developer acquired by Deere in 2017, created the technology behind the green-on-green solution.
The sprayer has a split tank with dual product capability, allowing the user to broadcast and target spray at the same time.
Franklin Peitz, marketing manager at John Deere, says at 12 mph, See & Spray Ultimate can reduce non-residual herbicide use by more than two-thirds, while maintaining a hit rate comparable to traditional spraying.
See & Spray Ultimate can be factory installed on model year 2023 John Deere 410R, 412R and 612R sprayers.
The Des Moines Works sprayer factory, which already produces those sprayer models, will manufacture See & Spray Ultimate.
Peitz says “double-digit” units will be made available for ordering later this year, which is also when pricing will be released.
Deere will limit the first year production supply to dealers in the Midwest, Mississippi Delta and Texas, followed by a wider rollout in the coming years.
“Our goal is for this to be a very simple transition for dealers who are currently selling and supporting ExactApply technology. That's our individual nozzle control technology. That's the foundation of this See & Spray. Absolutely there's new diagnostics and other things, but we're working hand-to-hand with dealers this spring with some of the units that we'll have out there to really get them trained up and comfortable with supporting this technology.”
In addition to the limited number of dealers who will have See & Spray Ultimate for sale, Peitz says another “double-digit” amount of ag retailers will have demo units out this spring.
