John Deere announced its See & Spray™ technology saved farmers an estimated 8 million gallons of herbicide mix* on more than 1 million acres applied during the 2024 growing season, delivering both cost savings and improved sustainability. To put that into perspective, these savings are the equivalent of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools over an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The AI-powered weed-sensing technology demonstrated an average herbicide savings of 59%** on corn, soybean and cotton fields across the U.S.
“We’re spraying less chemical, it’s [See & Spray] saving us money, and it’s better for the environment,” said Bill Came, a farmer from Salina, Kansas. “We ran through our herbicide costs we were going to have and dropped them by two-thirds. That is going to make our sprayer payment.”
Introduced by John Deere in 2021, See & Spray technology activates individual spray nozzles when target weeds are “seen” by boom-mounted cameras. The cameras scan over 2,100 square feet of crop per second as the sprayer is in motion, at up to 15 mph. Onboard processors then determine whether an individual plant is a crop or weed and sends commands to individual ExactApply™ nozzles, which deliver a precise dose of herbicide only where the weed is recognized. The technology is currently available for application on corn, soybean, cotton and fallow fields.
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