Challenge Accepted: Innovators deliver spray application options to mitigate drift
Agriculture
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19 Dec 2024
Challenge Accepted: Innovators deliver spray application options to mitigate drift
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19 Dec 2024
In 2021, CRDC led a challenge to innovators across Australia to help solve one of cotton’s most persisting problems by posing the question ‘Is it possible to revolutionise agricultural spray application?’
The challenge was a part of the Australian Government’s Business Research and Innovation Initiative (BRII), which is designed to support innovators with funding for early-stage development of solutions to real-world issues across industries including agriculture. Initially, six applicants were chosen in response to the spray application challenge, each receiving a grant of up to $100,000 to further develop their ideas and test their feasibility. From these six, two applicants were then chosen to move to the next stage, receiving up to $1 million from the government to develop a prototype or proof of concept. The two successful innovators were INCYT and SwarmFarm.
INCYT is part of the LX Group, which is a ‘full stack’ company – so called because it produces everything from electronic hardware and firmware through to the cloud back-end and software for a range of clients across many industries. The team specialise in internet of things (IoT) and electronic product development and have been designing for tech start-ups through to multi-nationals for over a decade. SwarmFarm are no stranger to the cotton industry. Based in Gindie in Central Queensland (Gayiri country), farmers Andrew and Jocie Bates are innovators of agricultural robots for crop production. Their SwarmBots are capable of autonomously spraying and slashing, along with testing now underway for a tillage capability. Their distinct orange colour and lack of cab are now seen spraying farms unaccompanied across NSW andQueensland. Starting from two very different places, both companies have been working on creating new specifications for their spray application technology through the BRII challenge.
Top Gun inspiration for Maverick
The INCYT innovation is the creation of a system called Maverick Spray Advisory, an advanced spray management and optimisation system that allows spray operators to plan, track and record spray jobs. Its dynamic forecast allows growers to plan their spray activity more accurately a week ahead. Maverick products are being released commercially in stages, with the first in 2023. This first release focused on delivering the ‘spray advisory’ – a traffic-light-style dashboard so operators know when to start, continue or stop spraying. It involves using a base station, with software and sensors designed to be retrofitted to interface directly with existing systems in all makes and models of tractors and spray rigs.“
Maverick essentially uses a broad range of sensors putting accurate, real-time data in the operator’s hands and coupling it with our decision making software,” INCYT CEO Adam Schindhelm said. “In giving spray operators Maverick and its ability to interpret spraying conditions, we can help stop drift and actually open the spray window, not close it.” The BRII challenge enabled the INCYT engineering team to expand its focus and use its development expertise to address the complex area of spray drift. “Through the BRII challenge we established industry connections and aligned our technology and R&D roadmaps to focus more on mitigations for drift issues,” Adam said. “CRDC helped us establish numerous industry and grower connections that not only aided with the BRII project but also accelerated adoption and refined the overall strategy for INCYT technology in the cotton industry.
Maverick is an in-cab spray management system.
“We see Maverick as a useful system on any Australian cotton farm, starting from providing information for spray planning with its dynamic forecast, to an alert system that makes sure operators are made aware of any change in conditions, to becoming an in-cab spray management system.“ While Maverick is already in use on many cotton farms in a number of regions, we aren’t nearly finished with the engineering and development from our side.” Wee Waa (Kamilaroi country) cotton grower Ben Swansbra has been using the Maverick system and has seen multiple benefits. “Just knowing the exact conditions on our farm ensures that I know when I can or can’t be out there spraying, without having to make a guess based on a far-away weather station,” Ben said. “This gives me peace of mind that I’m doing the right thing and provides the historical data to show we are spraying correctly and within guidelines, should we need it for auditing, which is becoming more common with some of the spray drift issues experienced in the wider area.”
Spray application specialist Craig Day of Spray Safe and Save was also one the six finalists in the BRII challenge for his water quality project. Craig has been running spray applicator training throughout cotton growing regions and uses the Maverick Spray Advisory. “One of the reasons Maverick Spray Advisory is popular with cotton growers is because it shows them exactly what the local Delta T, temperature and wind conditions are, resulting in an easy to understand dashboard that gets updated as the local conditions change,” Craig said. “The alert system is also great, as it gives the user a warning when a pre-set variable such as wind speed or direction changes during the spray application, allowing the operator to immediately take this into account and act accordingly.”
Future releases will involve a simple yet comprehensive framework for spray planning with dynamic risk forecasting based on the details of the spray plan, and an active monitoring component that measures the performance of the spray session from both a drift and spray efficacy perspective. “Our goal is to develop a tool that growers can rely on with embedded up to date chemical label data, clear risk signalling and simple clear reporting, ultimately leading to better spray results,” Adam said.
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