Robocrop brings weeds to justice

Controlling weeds with as little as 1-2% of the overall herbicide rate is the objective with spot spraying, used on one of the award-winning machines at last week’s Cereals 2014 event in England.

The Robocrop Spot Sprayer is the latest in the Garford Robocrop Family utilising the Robocrop imaging system, which firstly defines the position of the crop, and then looks for clumps of weeds growing between or amongst the crop rows, which it then targets with a special jet of weedkiller to kill the weed while avoiding contact with the crop.

Garford Farm Machinery Ltd were awarded the Gold IMMA Award for the sprayer at Cereals 2014. It won the sprayer category award. The Robocrop Spot Sprayer has been in development over the last few years by Garford’s technology partners, Tillett Hague Technology, prompted by the impending withdrawal of key herbicides, particularly those used for volunteer potato control in onion and carrot crops.