ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TAKES ON WEEDS

The latest tool in the fight against weeds powers precision spraying technology.

- John Dietz

Spot-spraying technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is making it possible for farmers to slash herbicide inputs.

“We were able to save 86% of the product that we were typically spraying,” says Laverne Gill of Medicine Hat, Alberta. “We used about 14% of what we would normally use to do a blanket spray” this spring before seeding by employing the Weed-IT Quadro system.

Shabeg Briar, research agronomist at Olds College, found similar savings in 2021 and 2022 using a Weed-IT Quadro system in replicated research strip trials. The Weed-IT cameras were able to identify weeds and send a signal to the nozzles to spray only green plants in brown areas, Briar explains.

The system wouldn’t help for in-crop weed control but “we saved about 80% to 85% of the spray volume in strips with spotty weed infestations and achieved a similar level of control,” he adds.

Weed-IT e

Rd LED lighting was introduced in North America by Weed-IT Quadro distributors for green-on-brown weed detection and control in September 2022. Distributors are AgriTech America in Bozeman, Montana, and Croplands Equipment Canada in Calgary, Alberta.

Weed-IT Quadro, built in the Netherlands by Rometron, was released in late 2019 with blue LEDs. Since then, new red LEDs and optics have outperformed the earlier system for consistency, efficiency, and predictability. All three are essential for effective spot spraying with optical technology.