Bilberry boosts bottom line for WA grower

Kade Mutter, a wheat, canola and barley grower in WA’s mid-west, says he hasn’t looked back since installing the Bilberry Intelligent Spot Spraying System on his family’s Miller Nitro 7380 sprayer.

Mounted to the sprayer’s 48-metre Pommier boom, the Bilberry system is delivering major benefits in terms of chemical savings, weed control, and overall productivity.

Mr Mutter said he thoroughly recommends the system, which represents a large stride forward for the family operation’s green-on-green spot spraying.

“One hundred per cent, I would get it straight away because of the savings and you definitely won’t go backwards, that’s for sure. I will keep getting it as we buy sprayers,” he said.

The Bilberry system is employed to control ryegrass and wild radish, along with some volunteer canola and blue lupins. It’s also used for green-on-brown weed control between seasons.

The Bilberry system utilises an embedded camera network, artificial intelligence and deep learning software to target weeds, and is controlled via an intuitive display screen interface inside the cab.

“Savings are the key these days and we have found the savings to be pretty good,” said Mr Mutter.

“It’s pretty cool to watch and see the savings that you are making, that’s for sure. Normally [with blanket spraying] you will be spraying flat out and going to fill up all the time. It’s pretty good to just cruise around and see what is being hit and what’s not, and you are not wasting your money into thin air.

“You are only spraying 20 to 30 per cent of your crop, so you are saving 70 to 80 per cent of the chemical you would be spraying out over a paddock.”

The tech has led to Mr Mutter tweaking how he approaches the spraying task.

“When we were blanket spraying, we would never put the full label rate of chemical out because of the cost. But when spot spraying, you can put that full rate out knowing you are saving anyway, and that weed will be dead after you have sprayed it – there’s no coming back from it,” he said.

Mr Mutter said he tackles wild radish late to ensure it’s addressed in the one pass.

“It does a pretty good job and spots out a fair bit if it’s dirty,” he said. “Maybe you could blanket spray dirty areas earlier, but generally we have been spraying as late as we can with a high rate of chemical.

“Sometimes you can be spraying up to 40 litres per hectare in a patch and in other patches there might be none. It doesn’t go much higher than 40 to 50 litres per hectare.

“We normally go with a water rate of 100 litres per hectare with the Bilberry. It allows us to have a low-down pressure with the system we have got, so we can put out big droplets and know we are going to hit the target with a fine mist behind it.”

The farm’s green-on-green spot spraying is now delivering strong productivity gains.

“The time between refills is once a day or every day-and-a-half depending on how many weeds you are spraying,” said Mr Mutter.

“It’s definitely good to sit in the machine and just spray and not have to go back to the tank and waste time. You can cover 300 to 400 hectares in a day because you are not having to stop and get out and muck around.

“With the big boom, we tend to only spray at about 20 kilometres per hour anyway and the cameras can do just fine at that, so we stick at that, cruise along and still cover a good amount of hectares.”

The Bilberry system uses 13 nozzles per camera and is a straightforward installation, while also being easy to use, Mr Mutter said.

“You get your head around the display within a day,” he said. “It’s no different to any other display in a machine you have.

“The system pretty much runs itself. You only have to change from spot to blanket spraying every now and again, but otherwise you can just set and forget.

“It also has the ability for weed mapping, so it can take photos of where your ryegrass is for your pre-emergent spraying. You will be able to put higher rates of ‘pre-em’ chemical out where you know it is and know it will be coming before it’s even up. So you will be able to control your grass weeds a bit better by putting a bit more chemical where it is needed and not everywhere else.”

Growers pay a subscription to the Bilberry Intelligent Spot Spraying System either per hectare or on an annual basis with unlimited hectares, and it incorporates all software updates and performance improvements.

In addition to targeting broadleaf weeds in cereal crops and blue lupins in lupin crops, other applications for Bilberry systems have included grasses and broadleaf weeds in lupins, as well as volunteer vetch in lentils. Further applications for use in canola, chickpeas and sorghum have been tested across Australia this season.

Kade said he was looking forward to possibly targeting wild oats or brome grass in wheat in the future.

“It will be all moving forward,” he said.