WEED-IT retrofit gives Queensland farmer affordable way to hammer tough weeds

Retrofitting a WEED-IT optical spraying system to a John Deere self-propelled sprayer is giving a Queensland farming family control over hard-to-kill weeds.

Nigel and Trudy Parker and their son Josh grow sorghum, wheat and chickpeas on 1700 ha on Mistie Downs, their dryland farm north of Clermont.

Rainfall at Mistie Downs averages 600 mm per year, which predominantly arrives in summer.

“The beauty of this country is it has a good depth of soil. It captures the summer rain and stores it. A crop is still able to get moisture even in a dry spell” Nigel says.

After rain, there is a weed burst and at that time, it makes sense to blanket spray. The dilemma for Nigel, Trudy and Josh was how to deal with the straggler weeds.

Before we had WEED-IT we would have to spray the whole paddock for minimal weeds. Now we can just target the weeds.

Nigel Parker, Mistie Downs, Queensland

WEED-IT optical spot sprayers can be mounted as a retro fit kit option on tow-behind sprayers, but the Parker family felt it was more economical to add it to their existing self-propelled. They would stay in their comfortable cab without the cost of another tractor.

WEED-IT and the self-propelled John Deere are a good match.

“They are two independent systems. That’s the beauty of it. There are no complications with them trying to talk to each other.”

The John Deere carries the boom and spray tank and looks after the section control. The WEED-IT system is a series of sensors at 1m intervals along the boom. Each sensor controls, four nozzles space at 250 mm.

When a sensor detects a weed, the weed gets sprayed with the closest nozzles. If it is a small weed, one nozzle gets it. Bigger weeds get targeted by more nozzles, ensuring every weed gets hit at the right rate. The sensitivity of the sensors can be altered and they work just as well during the day and at night.

The Parkers’ Deere sprayer has a 36m boom and a 3000-litre tank. That tank can either be used for blanket-spraying or for WEED-IT spot-spraying.

Nigel says it takes about 10-minutes to swap from blanket applications to WEED-IT. “We just turn some taps, and the nozzle bodies screw in or out to swap over. It is not difficult.”

When blanket-spraying, Nigel and Josh travel at about 20 kph and they go 12-15 kph for spot-spraying.

With the WEED-IT, they can save up to 90 percent of spray costs.

“I hope the system will pay for itself in five to six years, depending on the seasons. If it is dry, we don’t see as many weeds and we won’t need it as much. But in a wet year we may use it far more.”

Their WEED-IT gives Nigel and Josh more control over when they spray.

“If we don’t have to have lots of weeds, we can just run over the paddock without using much chemical. It keeps the paddock tidy.

Spraying weeds while still small is one advantage. Another is being able to use higher rates and more expensive sprays to target hard-to-kill weeds such as Feathertop Rhodes grass.

“We can target them more often. We haven’t been doing it long enough to lower the seed bank, but it’s a given it will happen.”

Deciding that the WEED-IT was the tool they needed and which version to get took some time. Croplands Queensland Territory Manager Lachlan Coom and a contractor with a tow-behind WEED-IT came out to the farm to demo the system.

Lachlan talked through what we wanted to achieve. He was very patient. I kept going back with questions: ‘What if we did this?’ Or ‘What if we did that?’

Nigel says

There are lots of WEED-IT systems working locally. “It helped with the decision that what we are doing is not new. It is proven technology and people are happy with it.”

Once Nigel and Trudy decided they wanted WEED-IT retro-fitted to the self-propelled, the next issue was making it affordable. Trucking the sprayer to a Croplands workshop was going to be expensive, so Nigel offered to strip the boom down and then accommodate the installers on the farm.

Josh spent the four days with them helping and learning.

“It was in our interests to look after them and it meant we could see what they were doing in case there is trouble later.”

The hand rail had to be changed in two places to keep the Deere sprayer’s ability to fold for transport and storage in the shed.

There is now an extra monitor in the cab, which does not bother Nigel in the slightest. It is easy to use and Lachlan guided them through it.

Nigel appreciated that Croplands understood that it is a big decision and up-front cost. Their flexibility to do the installation on-farm lowered that cost.

“Doing it at our place worked out well for us. They are a great bunch of people – Lachlan, Doyle, Tim and Damian.”

(It also helps that Trudy is an excellent host and kept everyone well-fed.)

The Parker family’s WEED-IT has already cut their spray bill and is giving them more control over when and what they spray. It is also better for the environment to cut the amount of chemicals needed.

“It has been a handy, valuable tool. It has got to be better to put a little chemical in a smaller area,” Nigel concludes.

WEED-IT a lifeline in Queensland farmer’s fight against resistant weeds.

Queensland farmer Shane Beil says he would not be able to keep farming without his Weed-IT precision spot sprayer.

Shane and his wife Nicky’s farm is Kilcummin Station, near Clermont, in Central Queensland. They run cattle and grow broadacre crops on about 7300 ha.

Crops are primarily sorghum, wheat and chickpeas, and they have also grown mung beans and sunflowers. Except for contract transporters, who cart their grain, Shane and his family manage the day-to-day running of the farm – from planting through to crop care and harvesting.

It is a dryland farm. We have black soils, which are good to work. We run 250 breeders and their progeny, all on natural grasses.

Shane Beil, Kicummin Station, near Clermont, Queensland

“This year we grew 2500 ha of sorghum, which we planted in January and harvested in May. We planted 1250 ha of chickpeas in April and we will harvest them in September or October. The chickpeas are a good option for us because we can get a crop from them when it is too dry for wheat.”

At the beginning of 2024, the Beil family upgraded to a new self-propelled sprayer to boost the efficiency of the cropping program. It is a John Deere 410R with a 36m boom and 3800-litre tank.

To reduce chemical use but still target the herbicide-resistant weeds that many farmers in Central Queensland now have, he also had Croplands fit a WEED-IT retrofit kit (spot spray system) to the new sprayer.

WEED-IT’s ‘green-on-brown’ system for spot spraying on fallow ground can reduce water and chemical use (and therefore costs) by up to 95 percent. It uses near infrared sensors to detect individual weeds as small as 1 cm² at speeds up to 20 kph and then directs spray nozzles to dose them.

The Beil family’s WEED-IT system has sensors mounted every metre along the boom. Each sensor works with four nozzles spaced at 250 mm intervals. Shane says when it detects a weed the size of your thumb, it uses one nozzle. When it detects a bushier weed it uses two, and when it detects a patch it uses four.

We used the WEED-IT to do three fallow sprays when we prepared the ground for sorghum in December and January.

Shane Beil

“At the time we did the first spray, the paddocks were fairly dirty. We left a few weeds behind and then we had a bit of rain, so we went again and got 100 percent. We then did a third pass over 10 percent of the area before we planted.”

Shane says he operates the WEED-IT at 18 kph but it is set up to work at speeds up to 22 kph.

With a combined 108-years of experience in the farm machinery game, machinery dealer group O’Connors  share Croplands’ passion for delivering world-class technology to Australia’s world-class farmers.

It is with this in mind that we are pleased to announce a new partnership with the appointment of O’Connors as authorised dealers of Croplands market-leading WEED-IT optical spot spraying technology.

Established in north-west Victoria in 1964, O’Connors is an award-winning machinery dealership offering an extensive range of both new and used agricultural equipment, precision agriculture products, innovative technology and exceptional customer service.

Along with community engagement this makes O’Connors a reliable, local partner. Having developed teams of high-quality staff at each location with extensive knowledge and a high level of technical training, O’Connors confidently offers farmers the level of support they deserve to be at their best.

Tom Sheridan, Group Sales Development Manager at O’Connors is excited for the partnership and the opportunities it presents for broadacre farmers in the O’Connors Dealership Network.

“Our customers are some of the most innovative farmers in the world and we need to ensure we can supply them with equipment that keeps them at the forefront of profitable and sustainable farming practices. The WEED-IT Optical Spot Sprayers by Croplands are widely respected as the industry leaders in spot spraying technology, with a calculatable and achievable return on investment for farmers who are dedicated to achieving a successful summer fallow.”

Mr Sheridan explained “When we were presented with the opportunity to market the product across our fifteen dealership locations it was a simple business decision for our group.”

O’Connors Staff recently undertook technical training in the WEED-IT system and the capabilities of the product.

O’Connors Machinery Sales Representative, Alex Noonan, one of the staff involved, was impressed with the capability of the equipment.

“It’s certainly a product that our customers have been asking after – the opportunity the reduce chemical use in the summer fallow management period is a high priority for broadacre farmers.” he said.

The addition of Croplands WEED-IT to the O’Connors dealer network represents another significant step for the group as they also celebrate a recent expansion through the acquisition of the former Sunrise Ag Case IH dealerships in Swan Hill, Ouyen and Mildura. These acquisitions take the group’s footprint to fifteen locations and allow the organisation to enhance its product, parts and service offering for the benefit of their customers now and into the future.

Broadacre TrailedO’Connors will be offering the full range of Croplands WEED-IT optical spot spraying solutions and parts as well as retaining the Broadacre Trailing and Compact Sprayers and Components product offering in the acquired Sunrise dealerships.

WEED-IT is an important tool for controlling difficult weeds such as ryegrass, sow thistle and fleabane.

Brendon Schultz is a broadacre farmer on the Liverpool Plains in NSW in partnership with his wife Amy and father-in-law Kevin Perkins. They grow wheat, barley and sorghum.

They bought their first WEED-IT in January 2020, when drought pushed them into the purchase.

“Stressed weeds are harder to kill,” Brendon says.

WEED-IT’s core feature is a series of blue LED sensors along the boom of the sprayer, which detect weeds and then sprays them – and only them. It uses a fraction of the spray compared to a traditional boom sprayer.

The saving in spray is huge. Brendon can use higher rates of more effective (and more expensive) chemicals, and still save money because he uses so much less.

We are getting coverage rates between five and eight percent of the paddock. It allows us to use higher rates that would have been cost prohibitive and we still use far less herbicide.

Brendon Schultz

“It also allowed us to use other chemistries that also would have been cost prohibitive.”

Brendon saves time with the WEED-IT because he sprays less often.

“We are not getting the escapes that didn’t get killed in the first application.”

Brendon bought the WEED-IT system of controller, sensors, nozzle bodies and solenoids, and addedthem to his existing sprayer. The boom is 12m and it is used with a 600-litre tank.

WEED-IT is a flexible system. It can be bought as an add-on, as Brendon has done, or it can be bought as a complete spray unit, and it can do both spot spraying and broadacre applications.

Some versions of WEED-IT can even do both at the same time. For example the Croplands WEED-IT trailed sprayers are complete spray units with two tanks and two regulating systems. These sprayers can apply two different sprays at different rates at the same time, one as broadacre and one as a spot sprayer.

Brendon uses his WEED-IT solely as a spot sprayer and runs a larger sprayer with a 34m boom for broadacre spraying.

WEED-IT uses blue LEDs to detect the chlorophyll in plants as blue is more sensitive than red. The blue lights can be used at night, which Brendon frequently does.

“The sensitivity is adjustable. Typically we run in the middle of the range. We know if it is misfiring if a lot of nozzles are going off, but there are not many weeds. That happens if the ground is very wet or in certain types of stubble. Then we just decrease the sensitivity.”

The spray line is 700 mm above the ground, clear of stubble, and the sensors are 1100 mm above the ground to prevent shading of weeds. Each sensor is a metre apart and controls four nozzles.

Controlling the WEED-IT is done via its own monitor, which Brendon says is easy to use.

Added to it is GPS control to prevent overlaps or missing sections.

Brendon’s dealer is NFS Ag Machinery in Gunnedah.

He says they have provided good service and can supply everything he needs.

“We had a few small issues with software and they have been quick to come out and get the machinery running again.”

Before WEED-IT, Brendon was spraying herbicides more frequently.

“Now we load up the tank with the brew and we know it is going to kill those weeds.

“The results are very good. We get it done first time in a manner that is economical.

Environmentally and economically it’s a long way in front of where we were.”

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.”