Now with more than two full years of experience in the field, Jeff Crissinger and the team at Nu-Way K&H Cooperative are ready to share their takeaways and insights on how selective spraying is changing custom application.
As an early adopter in ag retail, they first had a Hagie equipped with a Greeneye System for demonstration work which then became full field trials.
“What we’ve learned—the most important thing—is that this technology works,” Crissinger says. “We’re moving into the phase now in year three of putting a lot more reliability on the technology itself.”
In the first testing of selective spraying, the agronomic team overlapped contact herbicides to cover any skips, gaps, or misses. However, with the now established confidence in machine performance and accuracy to manage weeds has enabled the K&H/Nu-Way team to make the decision to no longer load tanks for any safety net.
“In the first year, we were pretty experimental. We pushed the limits of the Greeneye system and put it in situations that it wasn’t necessarily prepared for on purpose, just to see what it could do. And we’ve seen upgrades in the Greeneye system with algorithm upgrades, especially in soybeans that allowed it to be a lot more effective.”
How Effective is Selective Spraying?
Crissinger and the agronomy team have taken their in-field results from 2024 and analyzed the system’s performance.
For pre-plant, spray rates were 8.6% across 14 fields.
“Last year there wasn’t a tremendous amount of early weed pressure or weeds that needed the burndown,” Crissinger says.
For post-emergence applications, in corn the spray rate was 20.8% and in soybeans the spray rate was 25.8%.
Judging from 2023 to 2024 and the algorithm updates, the spray rate was improved by 10 to 15%, and in other words, the system was able to refine its identification of weeds and reduce the amount sprayed.
Having the data for spray rates helps farmers put dollars and cents to their custom application decisions and it helps Nu-Way K&H improve its logistically management of the tank mixes and volumes.
“Now we have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to spray —within a range,” he says. “And we do standardize our spray packages so if we have leftover volumes from field to field, we can keep going. Our typical positioning with growers is a reinvestment type strategy.”
So how do selective spray systems pay back in the field?
On top of reduced spray rates while delivering effective weed control, Crissinger says they are positioning the technology as a way farmers can reinvest in their farm.
“If you’re going to save dollars on killing weeds, where can you reinvest those dollars back into your operation or back into your crop to multiply that savings incrementally?” he says.
This summer at a field day, they showcased how across six soybean fields, the spray rate was 18.1%, which provided an average savings of $18.95/acre.
“So that means a grower could take $18.95 and reinvest it back into producing more bushels in their operation,” he says.
With positive grower reception, impressive results, and demand for more, they are adding a second machine this year – using both Greeneye Technology and John Deere See and Spray.
Crissinger says there are differences in the systems. For example, the Greeneye system is a two tank, two line setup. This provides for selective spraying and broadcast capability at the same time. The Greeneye system has a 10”x10” resolution for its imaging system.
The John Deere spray system they are adding is See and Spray Premium, which is a one tank system available as a retrofit on an existing sprayer. Its resolution is setup by a 3-nozzle section, so on 15” spacing that’s 45” spray resolution. Crissinger says they expect up to 10 farmer customers to also be using the same John Deere selective spray platform, so having their team’s experience will be added value to those customer relationships.
Being a leader in technology —especially in selective spraying —has been a priority of Crissinger and the team and will continue to be paramount.
“As far as technology and agriculture, it typically doesn’t go backwards. It typically only goes forward,” he says. “We expect over time that more and more of our customers will continue to adopt selective spraying technology. As long as we have demand from the people that we do custom spraying for, we’ll have some version of selective spraying technology, whichever makes the most sense according to that demand.”
