Spot Spray Solutions Gain Market Share in North America
The interest in spot spray solutions coupled with a growing number of providers is resulting in faster adoption throughout the North American market, writes Lara Sowinski at CropLife.
Trimble entered the market with its WeedSeeker spot spray solution several decades ago and introduced the next generation WeedSeeker 2 in 2019.
Initially, the WeedSeeker 2 experienced quick adoption in Latin America and the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) regions, explained Trimble’s Doug Daws, Director of Product Management, Crop Production Cycle.
Although the technology originated in North America, the climate and farming practices associated with those particular global regions facilitated early adoption and “better positioning of the WeedSeeker 2 in those markets,” said Daws.
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For example, Australia generally receives less precipitation. Summers are dry and hot and conventional broadcast spraying to control weeds in fallow fields is costly. Spot spraying is more cost effective not only because less herbicide is used, but herbicide resistant weeds can be better controlled with more expensive chemicals whose higher cost is offset when less herbicide is required overall. Like Australia, Argentina typically practices no-till agriculture, said Daws.
At the same time, minimum-till practices in states like Kansas, Montana, and North Dakota, “are also perfect for some of these green-on-brown situations,” he added, which is contributing to a “rapid uptake [of the WeedSeeker 2] here in North America.”
The WeedSeeker 2 boasts several features and enhancements over the previous version, including a lighter weight. Trimble’s Justin Prickel, Product Team Manager, Application Controls, said the lighter weight was one of the most substantial changes for the newest system, which equates to less modification to older booms in the way of bracing or retrofitting. The universal mount also supports easy installation.
In addition, the lightweight sensors have an expanded coverage area the matches the industry standard 50-centimeter spacing of spray nozzles. WeedSeeker 2 is also ISOBUS compatible. With the previous version, “there really wasn’t a display or user interface,” acknowledged Prickel. “It was just a couple of knobs and settings.”
Read more at CropLife.
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