Hops are a notoriously fast growing plant that eventually soar to a height of 20 feet. When treating them with insecticides, it's very easy to over spray, which leads to air borne drift and run off of the excess chemicals. Not good. Additionally, hops growers are very sensitive to chemical use to MRL limits when they go to export their hop crop.

The Smart Apply Intelligent Spray Control System is uniquely suited to applying chemicals to hop bines. Sold as a kit that can be used on virtually any air blast sprayer, the Smart Apply System is powered by LiDAR (lasers) that sense the height, width and density of the individual hop bines. As the tractor drives through a row, the Smart Apply System applies chemicals to each bine individually. The net effect is a dramatic reduction in chemical use, which saves the grower money and controls applied chemicals to help meet MRL requirements. It's also good for the health of the field and environment at large.

Smart Apply gathers data as it sprays, uploading to the Cloud. Hop growers can use this data to digitally document all spray events. Great for operations and sustainability initiatives.

In this video, the Smart Apply System is being used to spray a fairly young hop field. Watch closely to see how the spraying stops and starts and varies across of the circle of spray nozzles. This all happens automatically based on what the LiDAR sees. There is no manual intervention needed on the part of the tractor operator.

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