Spray tech on target

A WA farm will play host to one of two launch events in Australia on Monday, helping to usher in a new generation of precision spray technology.

Agrifac will officially launch its new AiCPlus camera spray technology at the Tapscott’s Pingrup farm on Monday, just four days before the second launch at Moree in May 24.

The technology sprays unwanted plants, using an array of cameras at 3m intervals across the boomspray, and artificial intelligence that can recognise weed species.

It works with algorithms, which factor in the distance from the camera to the weed, forward speed of the sprayer and boom height.

It creates a small spray swath which is contained within 500mm of the offending weed.

Agrifac national sales manager Mark Bastian said the event was open to farmers, agronomists, journalists, contractors and industry experts.

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

One of the headline speakers at this year’s Grains Research Development Corporation research updates has been pegged as a guest speaker at the event.

Guillaume Jourdain, of French technology innovator Bilberry, plans to speak at the WA and Moree events as it sets up a local office to support the AiC system.

AiCPlus works in conjunction with other Agrifact technologies, including StrictHeightPlus boom height level control, and StrictSprayPlus nozzle control.

Mr Bastian said the system had so far been tested in its “green on brown” phase, spraying green weeds in stubble, fallow fields and bare soil.

He said when tested at speeds of up to 20km/h, the system targeted more than 90 per cent of weeds longer than 30mm, and 95 per cent of weeds longer than 50mm.

Installing an AicPlus camera system will cost producers upwards of $200,000, but Mr Bastian said Moree trials delivered a chemical saving of $151, 277 a season.