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Tony Kramer: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology Podcast. I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, I talk with Mike Lockard about Sprayer Precision Upgrade Kit. With that, let's get into it. Back a couple of months ago, we talked about Planter Precision Upgrade Kit, sat down with Account Manager Colin Artz down in our Aberdeen, South Dakota location.
This time I'm bringing in Mike Lockard, one of our Precision Ag Product Specialists. With that, Mike, why don't you introduce yourself, tell our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are today?
Mike Lockard: Thanks for having me, Tony, again. My name is Mike Lockard, work out of the Bismarck location, cover the western North Dakota pod right now as a Precision Ag Product Specialist. Grew up around farms and ranches in western North Dakota throughout my early years, worked in oil and gas for a little while out of school, and then transitioned back into agriculture where I've been since 2013. I've been with RDO Equipment for just about eight years. Been precision-focused for three and a half of those years, and that's where we are today.
Tony: Coming from oil and gas, did you get to experience the big oil boom out there in western North Dakota, or were you out of it by that time?
Mike: I was involved with the oil boom quite a bit from about 2009 until I left in 2013. Kind of crazy times going on out in western North Dakota with that oil boom.
Tony: Yes, absolutely. It was a crazy time out there in western North Dakota. Let's just start out, Mike, remind our listeners what is a PUK, or a Precision Upgrade Kit?
Mike: A PUK kit is just the options to upgrade to the newest technology on an existing piece of equipment. The positive side or the nice side of that is that you can take an older sprayer that you're comfortable with, that you're happy with, that you're familiar with, and upgrade it to the newest technology that's available out there right now, which gives you some more efficiencies, better coverage, and things like that as it pertains to sprayers.
Tony: Why would a customer be interested in a PUK versus going out looking for that sprayer with the technology or even ordering a new sprayer? What would be the draw to a PUK?
Mike: I think there's a couple of different options or a couple of different reasons, Tony, will call it, is going out and looking for a brand new machine. Again, if you already like your machine, you're comfortable with machine, you don't have to do that. Also, there's a cost benefit to it as well. You're not going to have to spend the money to buy a new piece of equipment. You can upgrade the piece of equipment that you already have, which obviously comes out as a less expense than buying a brand-new piece.
Tony: Yes, absolutely. One of the things that I had mentioned in our Planter PUK episode, I made the comment about searching the used market. I put it into perspective of searching for that used car, you may find mostly what you're looking for, but on the used market, maybe you have to forfeit one technology or the other. Now, obviously, if you're ordering brand new, you can get whatever you want on it, but there is that additional cost of that brand-new equipment. It's giving our customers the ability to customize either a used piece that they find but they want to add technology to it, or it's the piece that they already have on the farm.
With all of the solutions, all of the offerings out there, there are a lot more sprayer PUKs out there than I thought there were. It was kind of eye-opening to me to see the number of different technologies or options we can add through PUKs. Mike, let's dive into this laundry list of options that customers could use to customize and/or upgrade the sprayer that they currently have.
Mike: First we'll start off with the fact that yes, there's a number of these different options that you can to customize or upgrade your sprayer. Some of it pertains to the technology side, some of it pertains to actually the physical size of the machine, which is the first one that I'm just going to bring up is boom extension options.
With those boom extension options, if you ordered a sprayer, say, that had a smaller boom on it, 90- or 100-foot boom, and now you're getting to the point where you want to upgrade that to a 120-foot boom, there are options for that for different model years and different configurations that you have. It helps by adding some length to the boom, giving you a little bit more ability to cover more acres quicker with an added out to that 120-foot size.
Tony: The cool part about that is it's all John Deere. It's a John Deere Boom.
Mike: Correct.
Tony: In the past, we've had to go to a third party, go to your local welding shop, things like that in order to get what you wanted, but these boom extensions are John Deere Boom Extensions. Correct?
Mike: Correct. Yes. That one is an interesting one to help with length and size and productivity. The other side of it is, our listeners and you know it well too, Tony, that when you got to spray, you got to spray, and it's time to go.
Sometimes that happens in lower-lighting conditions or at night or whenever you need to spray to effectively get your product down, which brings us to our next option for upgrades, which is both the boom and the vehicle lighting options that are available as a kit to order, LED lighting packages, different options for both the sprayer chassis and the boom itself, really help with visibility throughout the lower-light hours or if you need to spray later into the evening or you need that extra lighting to see exactly where you're going to be.
Tony: As long as we are on label, we are following the rules, sometimes that wind dies down in the low-light hours and we just got to go.
Mike: Correct.
Tony: This gives customers that ability to be out there in the dark and appropriately put down their application.
Mike: Very interesting, very helpful, especially in those lower-light conditions, yes. The ability to update theBoomTrac Pro 2 is also out there. If you have a sprayer that had the original BoomTrac on it, having the ability for a little bit more consistency across the height of your boom with BoomTrac Pro 2, the five different sensors that come with that BoomTrac system helps maintain your optimal height for application as you're going down that. That's another option. Precise place when you're trying to apply chemicals across the field.
Tony: Yes, and those are just some of the basics of sprayer precision upgrade. There's so much more on top of that that we can build upon. Right?
Mike: Right. The next part that I get into here is very strongly based with the technology side, Tony, with Pressure Recirculation and Product Reclaim. Those are big jumps in technology that we have now. Now that it is an upgrade kit that you can put on in an existing sprayer, it's really an interesting thing to allow you to recirculate your product through the boom all the way out to the boom tips, send it back to the tank.
If you have a product that you need to keep in constant suspension, recirculating that through the boom to make sure that your product is staying where it needs to be, going back and forth, really helps. The Product Reclaim side of that too is really nice because it utilizes the same plumbing. At the end of the day, if you still have some tank mix left, cleaning out processes, things like that, Product Reclaim allows you to then suck all of the product that's in the boom back into the tank so that you're as clean as possible in the boom as far as your solution is concerned.
Then you can go through your other cleaning processes to make sure that you're not having to waste any extra product, you're not having to try and figure out how you're going to clean all that extra product out of the boom. It actually does it for you, where it sucks it back into the tank. You're ready for the next day as long as that product is capable of sitting in the tank overnight, which that's not always the best thing, but as long as it is a capable product, that it is a very nice function to have.
Tony: That Precision Upgrade Kit, that PUK, is the perfect example of that. When we were talking earlier, maybe you got that 2018, 2019 R4038, you've already got ExactApply on it, but at that time, John Deere did not offer the Pressure Recirc and Product Reclaim solution. For that customer, that they love the sprayer they have, they've already got ExactApply technology on it, they can add Pressure Recirc and Product Reclaim and make that sprayer that much better.
There's a lot of opportunity, a lot of different offerings out there in the sprayer precision upgrade world. That kind of covers a lot of it, but we've got three more on--, and this is just on our list. I'm pretty sure we're covering all of them, but we've got a lot of nozzle technology that can also be upgraded. Maybe you don't have ExactApply or maybe you do have ExactApply, but you want to get to that next level. Let's talk about the different nozzle technology that a customer could get with a Precision Upgrade Kit.
Mike: Sure. The different nozzle technologies that are out there, different options. I'm going to just go into both of them and then give you a little bit of a comparison on what it looks like. You have Individual Nozzle Control Pro and then obviously ExactApply. With ExactApply, you have your six-turret nozzle body that is on there. Each one of those nozzles with ExactApply is individually controlled with the turret and the solenoids that's on there.
With Individual Nozzle Control Pro, you have a similar ability to control each individual nozzle at the same time with a single solenoid to spray when you want out of that nozzle. Section Control helps with the turning off and on of the nozzles. Very similarly to ExactApply. The major differences is that with Individual Nozzle Control Pro you're only able to spray out of one nozzle at a time.
With ExactApply, opens up a larger amount of options for you to be able to spray two nozzles at a time and apply different patterns out of those nozzles at that point. Both are very good options. Both work very well for controlling the individual nozzles and making sure that you are only putting your solution where you want your solution. It's just a different level of how all that stuff works.
Tony: Really great way to explain it that it's just kind of two different levels. You've got the Individual Nozzle Control Pro essentially putting a Pulse Width Modulation valve on your standard five-way nozzle body, but then you've got the more advanced option with the ExactApply, being able to spray out of two nozzles at one time and the plethora of usability that ExactApply has, lots of different opportunities depending on what you are as a grower or your operator's or whatever it may be, how you are using your sprayer, there are options.
Let's dive into this last one, Mike. This one is a pretty big one, and it's awesome that it comes as a Precision Upgrade Kit. You don't have to buy a new sprayer to get this amazing technology. Let's talk a little bit about See & Spray Premium.
Mike: Very exciting technology, very interesting technology with the amount of cameras that are able to be put on an upgrade kit on an existing sprayer where it's a fallow ground or pre-emerge/burndown situation where you're utilizing the brown and green solution or whether it's in crop using the green-on-green solution, having the ability to use a standard broadcast sprayer as a spot sprayer with a single tank is a big benefit to certain people.
I think as this technology continues to gain speed and continues to be upgraded and used more in the field, I think we're going to see even more and more benefits that we don't even know about yet, but this is an option for sprayers that are already out there that we can put a See & Spray Premium PUK kit on which gives you that ability to spot-spray weeds if you want to.
You can do a broadcast application out of the same machine so you basically are having two different sprayers in one. Very interesting technology that is out there now that we are able to put on older sprayers, newer sprayers. There's a lot of different things that come with See & Spray that we're excited about, I know John Deere is excited about it just to see where all of this technology goes with the different cameras that we have and what they're going to show us in the future.
Tony: Wait, so you are telling me, Mike, that I can take that 2018-'19 R4038, and I can put some cameras on that and turn it into a See & Spray sprayer?
Mike: As long as it falls within the correct specs, Tony, yes, I am.
Tony: That is awesome. Traditionally, to get this latest technology, you had to go out and buy a new piece of iron. You had to get into that 2024 sprayer or ordering a brand-new 2025 sprayer for next year, but we can get customers, with that John Deere sprayer today, we can get them into a See & Spray solution. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, Mike, but there are a couple of differences between a See & Spray Premium and a See & Spray Ultimate. Correct?
Mike: Correct. The big major difference between a See & Spray Premium and a See & Spray Ultimate machine is the tank configuration on those machines. See & Spray Ultimate machines come with dual-solution systems, so two tanks that are different capabilities than See & Spray Premium, where you can do multiple applications in one pass.
With the Premium machine, it is still a single-tank solution, but it gives you the option or the ability to do a spot spray application or a broadcast application. That's the main difference between the two. The way that the cameras react and the way that the cameras see and spray are very, very similar and do the same thing. The big difference is just that dual-solution tank that the Ultimate has.
Tony: I don't want to confuse our listeners in the fact that See & Spray Ultimate is not a PUKable technology. It is not a Precision Upgrade Kit. See & Spray Premium is. If you're looking to get that dual-tank solution, dual-product opportunity or ability, you have to buy, a See & Spray Ultimate sprayer is specifically a See & Spray Ultimate sprayer.
See & Spray Premium, PUK kit, you can put it on depending on the age range of your sprayer and the model and all of that, you can put it on, which leads me into my next question for you, Mike. How do I know, or is there anything that I can use to find out what is my sprayer capable of having for a PUK, or what can I put as a PUK on the sprayer that I currently have?
Mike: A few different options for the listeners if they're interested in putting a PUK kit onto a sprayer. Big one is John Deere does offer a PUK compatibility tool through their website in which you can enter your serial number, make, model, and see what is available for that. Makes it really easy for a listener to be able to go and explore that by themselves, so to say, especially if they're not 100% sure what it all means.
The next thing is making sure that if you are interested in this, talking to the right people at the dealership, the account managers, your product specialists, getting the information that you need to make the best decision that you possibly can, but the compatibility tool is a great place to start.
Tony: Yes, I was looking at that tool before we started recording here. It's really simple to use. Like you said, you enter in your serial number or at a minimum enter in your make and model of your sprayer if you don't know your serial number, and it'll pump out all of the PUKs that are available or compatible with your sprayer and then you can go as far as I believe building or getting it quoted and sending it to your local John Deere dealer. Correct?
Mike: If you go through that tool and you decide that you want a quote, that you're very interested in it, you can actually go through "request a quote" through that, which then gets driven to your local dealership. We will get that quote, and then one of our account managers and/or product specialists will contact you to make sure that everything is compatible, that we're able to do the PUK that you want to and then we start down the ordering process and get into more and more questions or things like that, that come up with that conversation. Very useful tool that's very easy to use.
Tony: Yes. Like you said, Mike, if you want to learn more or just talk to somebody, not just go on on the internet and do some searching, but if you want to talk to somebody, stop by your local RDO Equipment store or your local John Deere dealer, for those of you outside of our AOR, a lot of information available for you to make an educated decision on where you want to go with your current sprayer. Mike, I just want to thank you for taking the time today to sit down with me and discuss sprayer PUKs. Great to hear from you. Great to chat with you. Yes, it's good to get this information out there. A lot of different things a customer can do with the sprayer that they currently have today.
Mike: Yes, thanks for the time, Tony. I appreciate it. Hopefully, our listeners got something out of it that piqued some interest and hopefully we spur some conversation with some more people around PUK kits for sprayers because they're a fantastic option, to get into this new technology, and really, really get into-- I'm not going to say the weeds but get into the weeds of what these sprayers can actually do nowadays.
Tony: I like that intentional or unintentional pun there. Yes, get into the weeds, ask the questions, talk to the people that can get you the answers.
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