Eagle, Wis., no-tiller Tyler Troiola’s first experience with the John Deere See & Spray Premium retrofit kit is in the books, and overall, the system made a good first impression

“I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far,” Troiola says. “The herbicide savings were as advertised on corn. Soybeans were a little trickier, though.”

Opening Statement

It took about half a day for Troiola’s local dealer, Sloan Implement, to calibrate the 36-camera system, which selectively target sprays weeds, on his John Deere R4038 sprayer. Once it was ready to go, Troiola wanted to make sure the system was accurate before unleashing it on his entire farm. 

“We went into a field and marked a bunch of weeds with yellow, water-sensitive paper,” Troiola says. “We put some water in the sprayer and tested it out to see if the droplets were hitting the mark, and it turned out they were. It hit everything that was out there.”

The shorter the corn, the greater the savings, Troiola quickly discovered. He sprayed his no-till corn with a tank mix of Roundup and BASF Status herbicides and Jackhammer and Crosshair adjuvants when the corn was around V4-V5 at 10 inches tall, 14 inches tall and 18 inches tall.

“The system sprayed about 13-18% of the field on 10-inch-tall corn, which resulted in over 80% in herbicide savings,” Troiola says. “On 14-inch-tall corn, it sprayed about 25% of the field, dropping the savings to 75%, and at 18 inches, it sprayed about 35%, which still…