Farmers are rapidly adopting camera-based targeted spraying, and John Deere’s See & Spray technology saw another major year of growth in 2025. Josh Ladd explained to Oklahoma Farm Reports Maci Carter that the system expanded across North America with “over 1,000 See & Spray machines” in operation and more than “5 million acres covered,” which he noted is “larger than the state of New Jersey.” Despite a wet spring that elevated weed pressure, Ladd said farmers still achieved “nearly 50%” herbicide savings—equal to “about 30 million gallons of herbicide mix that weren’t sprayed this year.”
Ladd emphasized that the savings are only part of the value. He said many progressive growers use See & Spray’s reduced input costs to “reinvest that into the program to help with a better job of managing weed resistance or getting after our seed bank.” Even more exciting, he said, is the technology’s emerging yield impact: “We consistently saw… an average bushel increase at harvest of two bushels an acre, all the way up to 4.8 bushels an acre on soybeans.” He explained that limiting unnecessary crop exposure to herbicides is now delivering tangible yield gains “in real time this year.”
The technology advanced further in 2025 with free software updates designed to increase speed, expand crop compatibility, and improve performance. Ladd highlighted three upgrades: higher boom height thresholds enabling “over-the-canopy spray support,” increased operational speed “from 12 miles an hour… up to 15 miles an hour,” and reduced minimum row spacing that now allows “20-inch rows” for corn. These continuous updates show, he said, that See & Spray “is going to get better over time… year after year after year.”
Looking ahead, farmer input remains central to the next generation of See & Spray. Ladd said he leaves every major farm show with “10 to 15 new things that we have to focus on.” Farmers want the system expanded into crops like wheat, canola, flax, barley, peanuts, sugar beets, and potatoes, along with deeper insights from the cameras beyond weed detection. “They want to know more about overall crop health… insect or potential disease or fungus pressures,” he said, emphasizing that actionable, in-season insights are a key area of development.
Ladd also addressed lingering misconceptions surrounding camera-based spraying. He said some producers still feel they “have to see it to believe it,” especially when told a system traveling 15 mph can detect “a weed a quarter inch in size.” His advice: visit a field day and watch it work. For growers thinking about adopting the technology, Ladd offered one key insight: “If you’re interested in See & Spray, you have to have a plan.” He stressed that farmers should integrate it into winter agronomy discussions so they understand “how that savings changes not only the product that we apply… but the quantity that we apply” to maximize ROI the following season.
