 Hi, I'm Mark Hall with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System here with John Fulton and we're talking about sprayer technology. John, tell us about keeping your precision spraying on target, minimizing your expenses, minimizing your exposure to litigation. And it's just, that's going to grow. I mean, you look at what's happened in Europe and their record-keeping requirements around some of this, you know, it's just slowly creeping here in the United States. But at the same time, we talked about it the first part of this, about just the size of the machines, but the dynamics and the terrain and everything else that machine encounters in the field. When you couple all that together and you've got an operator and you're potentially could be driving at 15, 18 miles an hour, there's a lot going on. And when we think about what GPS has done, which we've talked about all that, and the ability of utilizing some of this technology to really improve placement, reduce overlap, verification as it relates to the collecting that as-applied data becomes very important. So, you know, we're going to talk about technology, let's talk about some of these technologies that could help out. And this is just an example of some of the technology or pretty much a majority of the technology that could be put on a sprayer today, Mark. I mean, we talked about the importance of having a good field computer and in-cab display and having that information to the operator and that if you're off-target, on-target, and that's important, right? And if I got to get out and fix or make an adjustment, we talked about telemetry. That's in there. I mean, these sprayers, some of them are coming day with that telemetry piece already embedded in them. And so, but we've got other things in there that we're going to talk about today is boom height control, you know, when we select the nozzle, a lot of times there's a height above canopy that nozzle needs to be run. And again, at the size and the train variation out there, some of the boom height control maintains that. So, if I need to be two foot or I need to be 28 inches, 30 inches, whatever that is, that just automatically maintains independently across that boom, the proper boom height, regardless of the conditions. And so that becomes very important to make sure that we're getting uniform application out there. We've got product control or rate control that we'll mention. That's section control where it automatically turns off and we'll define and look at that just real quick. We've got guidance and now even today, you know, companies are providing and you can put a miniature weather station on. And so you can actually record the current conditions into your in-cap display beyond just what you're applying, where, when and the timing and such. And then the new thing that's really coming on is this pulse width modulation or nozzle by nozzle control mark. You know, we've got companies like Capstan that are with their pin points. So it not only maintains the proper uniform droplet size or attempts to do that, it can change the flow rate. And so all of a sudden we've got all this technology that potentially could provide some value depending on your operation and the type of things that you're, you know, doing out there in the field. Just to give it kind of a tangible thing, our GPS guidance, and this is kind of things that on average is going to give you a 10% overlap reduction. You know, in the old days, we used to run a little bit of overlap just in short coverage, right? Well, that at times got pretty, you know. Dangerous. Pretty, you know, it was 12, 15% overlap. And so we can get that down to almost one to 2% and be consistent. That's a gain. That's money I keep in my pocket when I adopt the guidance. And I think when you look around the least of the United States, majority of the spreaders, especially the large ones, are running GPS. I mean, so that's it done. The rate controllers where it can actually meter product and of course record with the displays. And then the big thing and anxiety is automatic section control where it automatically will look at some examples to explain that a little bit better, but you can just see in that illustration, look at those nice straight lines and even with the train differences that a spreader is going down through that field as straight as an arrow. And so that's the kind of things that not only give me savings, but I just do a lot better job out there in the field during the spray operation. We mentioned automatic section control. We're going to talk about that next, but at the bottom there, that boom height, again, it's so important not only to have the right nozzle for the right product, but boom height control keeps that boom. And you know, usually a boom could be broken up into two, three different sections and independently make sure that each one of those sections are retained at the proper boom height. So you're getting that product applied accurately. That's very important. And I really don't know too many of the least the higher end spares that don't come with boom control, but that becomes a real necessity if you want to do a high quality job and you got a lot of train variation out there in the field. Just an example here, let's talk about automatic section control. It's just, again, using GPS, it turns sections on and off. So if I spray an area and I drive the sprayer into that area, it just, it shuts it off and it reduces overlap. It reduces application in those conservation structure areas, waterways, buffer strips. Today, most of this technology is I can preload the spray area, map the boundary of where I want to spray. And so that is just a real tangible. So in that case, that blue waterway on the left, I can map that out and a controller knows that as soon as it gets to the field when I load that boundary. And so again, it just takes the guesswork out of this and really improves your ability to do a good job and also the savings aspect. Just again, another example, when we think about guidance, you see there in the blue, there's light blue areas are where we've overlapped or we've double applied. But you see where without the technology, I'm kind of driving. I've got a cart a bit of overlap on the adjacent passes. I correct that through the guidance scenario. There on the ends, you see where I'm shooting boom section on and off. That's what automatic section control can give to a grower. Looking at that a little bit different way, we get these application areas at the top there. The blue represents double applied areas mark. The red is missed areas. And so when you drape the technology in particular, the section control over that bottom shows you the same area sprayed without or manual decisions being made by the operator versus the technology. But look at the improvement made. Big improvement. So and you can do that consistently, right? At the technology, as long as it's set up, property is going to be able to do that in morning, afternoon, night, whenever you're out there. And so a lot more consistency as well. Just an example, you know, we say 4.4%. But these are 22 fields that Dr. Luck and Dr. Shearer, when they were at the University of Kentucky. But look at that. Blues manually spraying those fields and the overlap. And look at that one is up into 30%. But you see a lot in that 10, the 20% area. Whereas when you put the section control, look at that. You're down in that below 12%, if not below 5% in a lot of times. But look at the savings, but also going back to being a good steward and not overflying. Tremendous. But the point here is it's all dictated on field size and field shape. And that's why you see those variations across those fields. But again, that's a good way of showing that there's a real tangible. And then of course, we've got these 120, 20 plus booms out there. Now what we see is we've got nozzle by nozzle control. We have cap stand. We've got Raven's Hawkeye system. Deer just introduced their nozzle control. I mean, we're basically similar to what we talked about in the precision seating technology. We're breaking that big sprayer rather than being 120 foot boom. We're basically potentially getting it in the future down to 15 or 20 inch where we're going to control it. And so we can think about how much better we can do with the nozzle by nozzle. This is called Pulse Width Modulation or PMW technology. We basically put a solenoid on each one and then it's regulated of how much comes out to be simple with it. With that technology, these big sprayers, basically when you're doing it, you got turn compensation. So if I put a target rate, I'm trying to put 10 gallons, 15 gallons per acre. Now the fact is, and it shows in the picture, the inside is not being over applied and the outside being under applied. So it automatically compensates and maintains that across the boom even when you're doing a current linear. So again, big machines, what it gets into, it's going to be more precise to maintain that target rate that we entered into the display. This is what this, this is a sprayer that was equipped by nozzle by nozzle, maybe a little bit difficult. But again, the operator's coming down, I'm standing on the edge of the road, there's a buffer strip. And so he's starting to slow down, think about turning. He comes over into the buffer strip a little bit and the nozzles turn off. I preserve that vegetated butter for strip. So this is what this can do, it preserves these conservation structures. And by doing it on nozzle by nozzle, you're pinpointing on and off of that very, very accurately. So that's kind of what this pulse width modulation or section control can actually do for you is to help minimize this spray and not where you don't want it to spray. So the other big thing is, and again, thinking about what the crops and what we put this through is the fact is that most of these cab displays, basically with the guidance coupled with GPS, you're going to get a detailed as applied. When timing, you can enter product, any of that and this shows you where you were out in the field and you can have that for tomorrow if someone stops in or if you need, like you were saying, litigation. Hey, I've got a tangible record. Rather than maybe sitting on a piece of paper that I either lost or I got a file and fine, it's right here on electronic verification that I can send someone. I can email that to you as verification mark if I needed to. Would it be handy? So pretty much all the manufacturers, all the technology providers are providing something similar. The nice thing is, is not only do I have it as a map, like a shape file that I can use in analysis, but they give you PDF summaries of everything that went on in that field. So you kind of get a report, plus you get the data that you can kind of use as a spatial data layer for some things too. Well, and if you were trying to cheat and do something off label, this would be, no, no, no, don't do that. Yeah, but. That would resist that temptation. That's right. But again, I think having the records are going to probably suit you better than not having records, so. Some things that I just want to go through some new things to think about today. We used to have to get out a jug, stop watch, go down through there and check. Well, today we've got technology, as an example, this spot on sprayer that basically, I just stick it underneath and it takes about three or four seconds and I actually know what the flow rate out is of each and every tip. So calibrating, checking nozzles basically preseason. If you got a season on some nozzles, you better check them so they're not worn. This is an easy way to do it. But again, just new technology can really help us better manage our sprayer and the components, in this case, nozzles out there. The other thing is, this is just an example, TJET provides this technology today, Mark. I mean, it's going to happen, right? There's going to be clogging. And this technology, you see a flow meter in the bottom left, it's mounted right on that spray body and they basically can tell you if you detect clogging, wear, damage, or anything out of the nozzles and it identifies that piece now for you. And so again, we're really getting information that can improve our opportunity here to do the best job we can and may never know in some cases, right? Yes. So, and then the other thing is, there's not an app out there that either a tip company doesn't provide. So when you're talking about selecting tips from this case, just an example, TJET, could be Hypro, it could be Leckler, any of them. They all got apps. It's right there in your fingertips. You don't have to carry that big book around, but if you're out the field, there's calibration information, there's documentation, anything almost that you want to have, label information, product information, and I didn't put it in here, but there are some really cool apps out today. If you're kind of a weed and want to identify weeds and stuff, it's right there on your app. And so, again, these are things that really bring information to you, write to your fingertips and be utilized effectively in your program throughout the growing season, even in wintertime when you're thinking about what you need to be doing. So I just kind of want to end on this. You know, Mark, we come into the fields and typically if they got grass waterways, we spray around those grass waterways, right? We got to spray around them so we don't spray in them. But for zones. But for zones, and that would be in the yellow here. I make those yellow passes and I do a pass or two around the outside and then I start filling in, right? Too easy. But that's what we used to do and today, given that boundary, I load that boundary into the sprayer, okay? And now I don't have to go around those buffers anymore. You know, I don't have to make each one. Think about the efficiency and the time in the field that that reduces having to go from driving around each one of those just to make sure I'm doing the best job to where now I take the boundary, X out those areas I don't want to spray. In this case, the red, I go out there and this is what that sprayer can accomplish out there. More efficient, much better application than what we were doing, per se. So just some ideas here. We just really kind of ran through the technologies themselves. There's some real tangible savings. We talked about guidance, talked about section control, what it could prevent. We greatly improve our accuracy. And then I think from a verification standpoint, we get that as applied data and can be really a potential useful tool force, not only as a report, but even I have that as a spatial data layer if I need to and put that into some of my analysis. And again, I think the big thing is we minimize and eliminate application, potentially going back to where we started on this discussion about drift. I think the technologies can really help, spacing with some of the weather apps and things can really help us make sure we're out there at the right time, plus it's doing the right thing. Wind is gonna make a tremendous amount of difference. And the height that you talked about in this, things we haven't paid attention to in the past, we're gonna have to pay attention to them now. So, yeah. And this will help, and things are changing, but we have the tools that we depend on are changing too. And John, thank you so much for helping us understand this important technology. And we really hope that y'all watch all our precision ag videos. Thank you.