Agrifac launches intelligent spraying system in Oz

Dutch spraying expert, Agrifac, has announced the official launch of its revolutionary smart spraying system, the AiCPlus (pronounced ‘I See Plus’) Down Under following a series of trials on several farms across the country.

Developed with the help of French tech company, Bilberry, the AiCPlus system consists of a series of RGB cameras installed along the sprayer boom at 3m intervals.

The cameras use artificial intelligence to pick out the weed species from fallow or cropped conditions. It then uses algorithms to factor in the distance from the camera to the weed, forward speed of the sprayer, boom height and more to calculate which nozzles to open and when.

It then works in conjunction with other Agrifac technologies – notably StrictHeightPlus boom height level control, and StrictSprayPlus nozzle control to just spray the weeds, more specifically within 500mm of the offending weeds.

So far the system has been tested in Australia in a ‘Green on Brown’ phase – spraying green weeds in stubble, fallow fields and bare soil.

At speeds of up to 20km/h, the system successfully targeted more than 90 per cent of weeds with a diameter greater than 30mm, and 95 per cent of weeds with a diameter greater than 50mm, Agrifac claimed.

“The trials have revealed huge savings of water, chemical, time and money, plus significant productivity gains,” said Agrifac National Sales Manager for Australia, Mark Bastian.

At Beefwood Farms near Moree, NSW, where one of the trials were held, spraying 6199ha at 150l/ha used to require 929,850l of water and 27,896l of chemical– or 223 refills of the 8000-litre Condor Endurance sprayer. With AiCPlus, that reduced to just 60,440l of water and 1814l of chemical with only 12 refills.

The refill delays were reduced from 116 hours to 6 hours which meant 1000ha of land could be treated in a 12 to 13 hour day.

Depending on boom width, installing an AiCPlus camera system will cost from $200,000. Against that investment, the Beefwood Farms trial delivered a chemical saving worth $151,277 per season, Agrifac said.

Agrifac will be formally introducing the system to Australian farmers and agronomists at two launch events in May - at Tapscott’s Farm in Pingrup, WA, on May 20; as well as at Beefwood Farms near Moree, NSW, on May 24.

Agrifac invites any interested growers or contractors to turn up at any of the launch events to find out all about the technology for themselves.

“It will give them a chance to see AiCPlus in action, learn how it works, and talk to Agrifac’s local and Dutch representatives about the breakthrough technology,” Bastian said.

A representative from Bilberry, Guillaume Jourdain, will also be on site to explain the technology.

“We’ll also put on lunch and refreshments, so locals can catch up and ask about the technology in a social setting,” Bastian added.

Those interested in attending the launch events can sign up here for more info.