What if it was possible to retrofit an existing sprayer with a system that reduces the amount of herbicide needed to spray a crop by about 78 per cent, and it still achieved the same level of weed management as a broadcast application? And what if it was possible to see a payback on the cost of the sprayer modifications required to reach that goal in about 12 months? Would you jump at the opportunity?
Dozens of U.S. farmers have done exactly that. They’ve signed on as early adopters of a green-on-green spot-spray system that can be retrofitted to any major brand sprayer. (Green-on-green refers to the ability to detect weeds in a growing crop and spray only the weeds.) The system is the product of Greeneye Technology, a young, Israel-based tech start-up firm. It successfully launched the system in Israel in August and it’s about to do the same in North America, starting with limited sales to select growers in the U.S. Midwest.
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“We released the early adopter program in early 2021,” Greeneye Technology’s CEO, Nadav Bocher, told Grainews. “We had hundreds of (U.S.) farmers reaching out to us.”
North American demand for the Greeneye system has already overwhelmed the company’s ability to fill orders.
“The bottleneck was us,” Bocher says. “We were not able to supply that many machines. The challenge wasn’t demand — it was supply on our end.”
As Greeneye Technology establishes itself on this continent, it expects to quickly expand marketing of its system into more U.S. states and eventually Canada as well, likely in 2023. Currently, the technology is set up to focus on corn and soybean crops; however, the company is already working on adding to the list of compatible crops the system can function in.
Seamless integration
According to results from Greeneye’s field trials, the system can detect and spray weeds in green crops with 95.7 per cent accuracy. And as a bonus, it collects extremely high-resolution field data for subsequent management decisions at the same time.
“Crucially, the system is designed to integrate seamlessly into any brand or size of commercial sprayer, removing the need for farmers to invest in new machines,” says the company’s press announcement. “It also ensures precision spraying can be carried out at the same travel speed as broadcast spraying, 20 kilometres per hour, ensuring no reduction in productivity for farmers.”
“Our focus is the aftermarket, turning every sprayer into a smart machine,” adds Bocher. “That’s what guides us. We’re not trying to push brand new machines into the market.”
The Greeneye system
Aside from the necessary digital hardware and software to run the technology, the Greeneye system includes a full replacement sprayer boom fitted with the camera sensors and the necessary lighting to allow the system to work, explains Bocher. But systems like overlap control already integrated into the sprayer should still work with the Greeneye boom. However, the sprayer needs to be ISOBUS compatible to integrate the Greeneye system.
“We’re working with a company in the Midwest called Millennium Boom,” Bocher says. “They manufacture the boom for us. And we do the (system) installation ourselves. That’s what allows us to have a robust, quick and efficient integration process. We have a site in Israel and the Midwest. We take the boom, install our system on it, do all the installation and calibration before we ship it to the customer.”
Initially, Greeneye is focusing primarily on a 120-foot boom, but the system can be made available on a smaller 90-foot boom. The company is working on expanding the system’s capabilities so it can spot spray other chemicals, such as fungicides and insecticides.
No pricing information is yet available for the system as the company begins its market expansion, but Bocher says so far initial sales have given producers a full payback on their investment within roughly one year.
