Tony and Leanne Wedel crop 3640 hectares in Capella, Queensland. The operation, Marylands Farming, produces sorghum, wheat, sunflowers, mung beans and chickpeas on undulating country 50 kilometres from Emerald.

Weed control is vital to the Wedel’s operation. With weeds constantly evolving and adapting, Tony and Leanne have had to evolve their weed management practices.

Where Tony previously used a self-propelled sprayer for his entire spraying program, he now uses a Croplands WEED-IT optical spot sprayer for managing weeds in fallow paddocks across the farm.

“Sometimes I only spray five percent of the paddock. It is a big saving on chemical, and gives us better control.”

WEED-IT Quadro sprayers from Croplands are multi-talented machines that give farmers and spray contractors options including two systems of operation – blanket spraying and spot spraying.

They can work alone, or the two systems can work simultaneously. For example, you can blanket spray a pre-emergent with one tank across the whole paddock, while the spot sprayer has a high concentration of a different chemical and targets only the emerged weeds at a different rate.

Tony and Leanne purchased their first Croplands WEED-IT spot sprayer in November 2017.

“We had bought the place next door and were having trouble trying to control summer grass and Feathertop Rhodes. We got the WEED-IT spot sprayer and it has controlled it all.”

Because Tony only sprays the weeds and not the whole field with the WEED-IT, he uses a fraction of the spray and can afford a more concentrated chemistry with a different mode of action to ensure a good result.

“We use a lot more expensive brew that does a better job,” he says.

The couple bought their latest WEED-IT sprayer in June, 2021. The Croplands WEED-IT 6000 has a 36m ground -following boom with springs and twin airbags on each wheel to give efficient boom suspension.

“Every now and then we hit a contour on the wrong angle, but there have been no issues,” Tony says.

The main tank holds 6000 litres and the spot-spray tank holds 1100 litres. Tony can also use the main tank for spot spraying.

His first WEED-IT sprayer featured the first generation red LED sensors, whilst the new sprayer has the next generation Quadro sensors with blue LEDs, which are more sensitive to weeds and give greater accuracy.

Sensors are spaced 1m apart with each unit controlling four solenoids on 250mm spacing fitted with 40 degree narrow angled nozzles. Unique to the industry, this superior sensor and nozzle arrangement delivers more chemical savings than its competitors and ensures the highest dose of chemistry is delivered to the target.

The sensitivity of the machine can be altered to suit the size and type of weed as well as light setting – for example, if you are spraying at night, so that the unit’s performance is not impacted.

“Some weeds have been incredibly large but the WEED-IT still knocks them over and kills them,” Tony says.

At the end of the day, he flushes out the lines using fresh water from the 470-litre rinse tank combined with some Omo washing powder. If the sprayer will be in storage for a few weeks he uses a wetting agent to stop the nozzles blocking.

It only takes a push of a button in the cab to fold the boom back into transport mode.

Tony pulls the Croplands WEED-IT 6000 with a 280-hp tractor but he says “150 hp would be plenty”.

He controls the spot sprayer on its own terminal, and can run the blanket boom through the tractor’s ISOBUS system.

While he has the option, Tony has yet to use the blanket spray option with his new Croplands WEED-IT 6000 due to the high accuracy of the spot spray mode across his fallow ground. He says he wanted the full boomspray option mainly for resale value.

Tony also owns a self-propelled Rogator RG1300B that he uses for all in-crop work including insecticides and fungicides.

The local WEED-IT dealer is Western Mechanical in Capella.

“It is a really good local service,” Tony says.

They do other repairs and maintenance for Marylands Farming and are happy to come out when required.

His Croplands WEED-IT sprayers have needed little support, but if Tony needs spare parts the dealer stocks them as well as other wearing parts.

Our first WEED-IT covered 25,900 hectares per year for four years. All we did was change the air bags and tyres, which was just normal wear and tear.

Tony Wedel

Technicians from both Western Mechanical and Croplands came out to set up that first WEED-IT and show Tony how to use it.

When he got the second one, they set it up, gave it a trial run, and will return when the spray season gets underway.

WEED-IT sprayers have been well worth the money for Tony.

“I wouldn’t have bought another if it wasn’t. I don’t understand why more people aren’t using them, especially with the price of chemicals going up and weeds getting harder to kill.”

WEED-IT optical spot spraying has been instrumental in helping Australian farmers gain the advantage in weed management and control.

Using advanced sensors to detect chlorophyll in actively growing weeds in fallow fields, WEED-IT saves growers time and money when spraying and reduces overall herbicide usage. Croplands has led the charge in bringing WEED-IT to market with over 13,000 sensors sold into the Australian market alone.

Having distributed WEED-IT in Australia for nearly a decade, Croplands have built up a wealth of knowledge and runs on the board when it comes to advising and supporting end users and their consultants with their optical spot spraying programs.

While the sensors are manufactured in the Netherlands, Croplands has developed a range of best practice platforms specifically for Australian conditions and for Australian operators who are continually searching for field efficiencies.

The premium model in the Croplands WEED-IT range – the Croplands WEED-IT 7000 – features a 7000-litre main tank, 800-litre flushing tank and a 1500-litre hot tank. The latter of which holds high-concentration chemicals for spot spraying.

“Our Australian-designed twin-tank, twin-line sprayers allow growers to spot spray whilst also applying a blanket spray with the option of using different herbicides at different water rates to deliver excellent weed control

Steve Norton, Croplands Portfolio Manager.

“For example, a pre-emergent herbicide could be applied through the blanket line, while the spot spray line may apply a knockdown herbicide to existing weeds.”

“Another common strategy used to delay the onset of herbicide resistance is to use a concentrated mixture of chemicals and rotate between groups. The Croplands WEED-IT twin-tank, twin-line sprayers give growers the ability to engage both these strategies in a very economical fashion to target those hard-to-kill weeds,”.

In 2019 Croplands released the evolutionary WEED-IT Quadro, the next generation in spot spraying technology which uses blue near infrared sensors.

“WEED-IT Quadro’s superior mode of detection allows for faster travel speeds and the ability to target smaller weeds before they get harder to kill or go to seed,” says Steve.

WEED-IT Quadro sensors activate extremely fast 50Hz 6-volt PWM-capable solenoids – opening and closing 50 times per second – that in turn activate nozzles to hit the weed with a targeted spray. This is vital for accurate targeting of weeds in a range of weather and speed conditions, day or night.

Quadro sets a new standard for high-speed nozzle activation and accurate weed targeting.

Steve Norton, Croplands Portfolio Manager

“The sensors automatically calibrate 40,000 times per second to compensate for varying crop, soil and daylight conditions. They are also very efficient at night spraying.”

“25cm nozzle spacing coupled to 40 degree nozzles means that WEED-IT Quadro’s spray zone is optimised and more accurate than other optical spot sprayers.”

Other models in the Croplands WEED-IT trailed range include the cable-suspended hydraulic boom models made in collaboration with leading Western Australian manufacturers, Sonic, and the Croplands-designed models with 4000 or 6000-litre main tanks. All models have the option to upgrade to a twin-tank, twin-line configuration.

In 2020 Croplands boosted its WEED-IT range with the introduction of a three-point linkage model that was designed at its facility in South Australia.

“Over the past eight years, most WEED-IT platform developments have focused on trailing sprayers and smaller tool bars. Now we work more towards adapting a sensor platform that better suits row crop environments”, says Steve.

The three-point linkage sprayer is available with boom widths of 19m or 25m.

“Quadro sensors are fitted every metre across the boom with the first sensor placed on centre, which is ideal for row cropping,” Steve says.

Designed with a tank size of 1600 litres, the new linkage model offers other convenient features such as hydraulic lift, separate hand wash tank, and 80-litre flush tank for rinsing nozzles and boom lines.