John Deere's See & Spray Ultimate sprayer is fitted with 36 cameras along its entire lengthNo-one likes weeding, but new technology is helping farmers around the world tackle weeds in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way.
Controlled by an artificial intelligence software system, the connected sprinklers then only spray herbicide onto the individual weeds rather than drenching the entire field. For farmers elsewhere in the world, a number of rival firms, both large and small, have developed similar smart-weeding technologies. These include German company Bosch BASF Smart Farming, whose camera-scanning weeder is called Smart Spraying Solution.A number of farm weeding machines use cameras and software systems to target individual weeds
Mr Bocher adds that while such high-tech weeding systems are expensive, with Greeneye's costing around $250,000, a large farm could see annual savings of up to $120,000, due to reduced herbicide costs, and higher crop yields. But whatever the advanced spraying method may look like, farmers still face an uphill battle against weeds. "Some weeds evolve to look more like the crop and they can be harder to find," says Michael Gore, a professor at the SIPS Plant Breeding and Genetics Section at Cornell University.