Cost Effective Precision Ag Upgrades to Boost Efficiency & ROI
At Commodity Classic 2025, XtremeAg's Matt Miles and John Deere’s Clint Chaffer discuss cost-effective precision ag upgrades for sprayers and planters that maximize efficiency and profitability. Upgrading to individual nozzle control on sprayers (even as old as 2008) reduces chemical waste by 2-5%, while newer models (2018 and later) can integrate See & Spray™ technology, cutting chemical costs by up to 59%. BoomTrac™ Pro 2 ensures precise boom height control, improving coverage on irregular fields. With See & Spray kits available for just $25,000 installed, these precision agriculture upgrades provide a high ROI without the need for new equipment. Investing in precision spray technology helps farmers stay competitive in a challenging farm economy while reducing input costs and increasing yields.
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00:00:00 Continue our discussion about upgrades you can make to existing equipment to save you money and also make you money. 00:00:06 We're here with Matt Miles and Clint Chaffer in front of a display you have at commodity class. They're talking about precision upgrades. 00:00:13 I love this because you've actually got, uh, monitors going and you're saying two to 5% savings on product. 00:00:19 $600 a day, 22% better. This, I like it because let's face it, farm economy's a little bit of a struggle right now. 00:00:26 I love seeing spray sprayers. That's cool. I'm not quite ready to make that investment, but what can I do with my existing sprayer? 00:00:31 You said if your sprayer is 2018 or newer, I can do a bunch of these things. Talk to me. Yeah. 00:00:36 Yeah. I mean it all depends on what you're looking for. I always say, uh, nozzle technology, you got, uh, individual nozzle control pro and exact apply. 00:00:43 Those are always your foundation, right? That's your nozzle tech that you're, that you're looking at. Heck uh, so 00:00:47 That's the first thing you'd recommend if I got Oh, absolutely. It needs upgrade. You say start with nozzle technology. 00:00:51 Absolutely. Yeah. I'm the farmer. And why? Well, co coverage long. Okay. I mean what I'm not duplicating coverage. Right. 00:00:58 Okay. So, so here's the fun part on that individual nozzle control pro. We can go all the way back to a 2008 sprayer. Okay? 00:01:04 So that's, that's somebody that's running a 47 30 48 30. We can upgrade those with individual nozzle control, 00:01:10 which is gonna be huge because, uh, again, seeing that savings, we say two to 5% savings. I would say every farmer needs to probably look at 00:01:18 how irregular are your fields. Exactly. Right. Because the more irregular, the more waterways, the more tree lines 00:01:24 that percentage starts going up, right? Yeah. Majority of your fields are gonna be irregular in the United States. 00:01:28 Yeah. And there's some that are squared. Nice. But, but the, I'd say the higher percentage is definitely gonna be irregular. 00:01:33 Well, Matt is in the Delta region of Arkansas, you do have more flat and square Bad points. We have a 00:01:39 lot of drainage and bios and ditches and stuff that make, I mean we've got some, but obviously At the other end, the extreme Kevin Matthews is in, uh, 00:01:46 North Carolina where there's a lot of this and obviously Kelly has a lot of the waterways in the hill. So all of a sudden 00:01:51 Is Kansas, some of those places, My biggest payoff on a precision upgrade you think is the nozzle technology that just call 00:01:55 left me to just keep shutting off. I think that is the base foundation technology that you gotta be looking at. 00:02:00 Right? And it's kind of like what we talked about Kelly with uh, with the, uh, row shutoffs, right? When you go to electric meters, right? 00:02:06 It's that same kind of savings you're getting down to that nozzle, nozzle level. Now once you get some, I'm a little bit of, um, remember I'm not the farmer here. 00:02:14 Does it happening automatically or am I like up there hitting the stage? No, no, no. All 00:02:17 Of you. You got a shade fall. So when it gets outside of that boundary, it's gonna cut off exactly what Clint said. 00:02:22 You know, start, it started with the row units and we've saved a lot of seed just by boundary in our fields. 00:02:27 And now those shut off in those irregular areas and the sprayers copy in the same Scenario happens automatically. Go ahead. 00:02:33 Yeah, no. And uh, so then the base of Sea and Spray, so we talk a lot about sea and spray, right? Right. We have to have a couple base technologies in there. 00:02:40 So with that, we have to have the sprayer 2018 or newer and it's gotta have exact apply on it, right? Which you're still getting that individual nozzle control, 00:02:47 getting 30 hertz pulsing. I mean, this thing's absolutely incredible. Then you're gonna have to have something like boom track Pro 00:02:53 two down here, and then you can ultimately get to that C and spray C and spray aspect. What's 00:02:58 Boom Track Pro Two is another upgrade I can just add to it. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, uh, based on, uh, 00:03:03 depending on compatibility, right? You always gotta look at the year of the sprayer. Uh, but it's just a, uh, high performance, uh, for, 00:03:09 for keeping your boom at the right height, right? So it's putting sensors out there and it's actually making those adjustments. 00:03:15 'cause again, if you're going on hills, you gotta make sure that you're staying on the same, You see it where all of a sudden this one's touching the 00:03:21 crop or even hitting the dirt and this one over here is ready for takeoff. Yeah, exactly. The wrong drainage ditch. Its the whole thing's gonna turn 00:03:27 sideways and that, that piece of the puzzle allows that boom to stay at the perfect height. Yeah. All 00:03:32 The time. And that way then we Uniform coverage shot. Yep. Yep. What else? What's the last Precision upgrade? 00:03:36 No, and and the last one, you know, again, we talk a lot about Sea and Spray and uh, I know you're, uh, yeah, 00:03:42 I don't think you're anxious to run Sea and Spray, uh, this year on your farm. And, uh, that's really looking at that opportunity 00:03:47 to have the cameras have those VP for all the video processing on there and you're actually having 59%, uh, 00:03:55 chemical savings on average, uh, just on sea and spray. So I can Add sea and spray to an existing 00:03:59 Sprayer 2018 or or newer. You gotta have exact apply. You gotta have boom track Pro Two and now I'm guessing 00:04:05 this is kind of a good, better, best. This one here is the most affordable and biggest payoff. Boom. Track pro. Mm, payoff. 00:04:11 But Sea and Spray, it's gonna be more expensive, but long term I get better payoff. Yeah, it's Higher percentage of savings. Yes. 00:04:17 Sea and Spray, I mean, is actually incredibly affordable to get into right now. So, uh, it's actually one of the, the best 00:04:23 as you start looking at ROI and affordability to get into it, it's one of the latest technologies and incredibly affordable to get, 00:04:30 actually, you always like me to throw out numbers here. I'll throw one out for you. Our sea and spray kits have been at $25,000 installed. 00:04:37 That's it. To get sea and spray on your, on your sprayer. So as long as you got the base technologies, sea 00:04:43 and Spray is actually incredibly affordable to get on your 2018 or newer John Deere spray. I think We're gonna leave it there, Matt. 'cause I've 00:04:49 been trying to get Clint to actually commit to a number. He was reminding me of one of those guys. I don't know. 00:04:53 I can't say, I can't say, but okay, we finally got it. $25,000 and the big point here is we don't have to break the bank. 00:04:58 We know the farm economy is a little bit tight right now, but if you are not technologically advancing, 00:05:04 you're eventually left behind. So, I mean, it is always smart money, uh, cautious yes, but smart money and this is probably one of 'em. Well, 00:05:11 And that's one thing I applaud dear about in general is they'll let you allow you to take an older piece of equipment and upgrade, whether it's a planter, 00:05:18 whether it's a sprayer or whatever. You don't have to go out there and buy that, that million dollar piece of equipment, 00:05:22 especially in today's economy. You can come in for, uh, pennies on the dollar and upgrade your existing equipment 00:05:28 and do the, have the same technology as some of the new stuff. And then on this stuff right here, am I having 00:05:32 to go into the cab and put in a whole big new console? I mean, or how, how difficult is it to fit Up there? No, I mean, there, there are different 00:05:38 kits that require different displays, right, based on the technology, but a lot of this kind of stuff, and man, it's, it's, it's using your, uh, 00:05:43 your current displays. Uh, as we get into, uh, sea and Spray, we're gonna be, uh, requiring the G five, uh, display, uh, within Sea and Spray. 00:05:51 But, uh, some of these other ones, no, you can run, uh, run your current display that's in there. Clint Chaffer, Matt Miles, he's with, 00:05:57 with Extreme Ag, he's with John Deere. I'm coming at you from Commodity Classic 2025 talking about precision upgrades to your planter and to your sprayer. 00:06:04 Yeah, we know the farm economy is what it is. You can't break the bank, but you know what, you gotta stay in the game and this is a good way to do it 00:06:10 and get your return on your investment pretty promptly. Till next time come at you from Commodity Classic 2025. 00:06:15.185 --> 00:06:17.285
Growers In This Video
See All GrowersMatt Miles
McGehee, AR