R&S Blog

AutoTrac Vision Keeps You On The Straight and Narrow

As post-emerge application season arrives, so does your first glimpse of how good a job was done while planting. We all cross our fingers and hope for an even emergence and straight rows while applying. Unfortunately, the reality is, if you are applying in a crop where it was planted without AutoTrac, the planting guidance lines are not available, or maybe the guidance lines drifted, then operators do not have that luxury. Just 1 second of misalignment at 15 mph on a crop with 36,000 seeds/acre, you will damage 91 plants. These mistakes add up quickly and put a lot of stress on sprayer operators. 

Luckily John Deere is looking out for you with our industry exclusive AutoTrac Vision system, it uses a frame mounted camera to see early season crop rows.  The camera system sends input adjustments to AutoTrac helping the wheels stay in the center of the row preventing any crop damage.  Auto Trac Vision works best in 30” rows with 6-inch-high plants all the way up to about 90% crop canopy. 

Average sprayer operators typically spend 82% of their total time steering the sprayer down the row.   With AutoTrac Vision those same operators can save 13% of that time, leaving them more time to keep an eye on boom height, plugged nozzles, spray pressure and flow rates and obstacles. AutoTrac Vision gives the operator even more confidence in the machine, allowing the user to spray up to 20 percent faster in the row compared to manually driving today.  Just by increasing spray speeds by 3-4 mph an ag service provider could add up to $1200 in revenue a day, while keeping crop loss at a minimum. 

AutoTrac Vision can benefit all operations, allowing fast growing weeds and insects to be taken care of quicker than ever. Growers are working long hours and it is a crucial time to get the job done.  AutoTrac Vision will enable fewer mistakes at higher operator speeds. Operators will experience some of the same benefits in a tractor, while increasing crop safety and reducing fatigue.