See & Spray Gives a herbicide yield penalty to your fields.

[deerefarm]

Ok, so I was making my video on controlling weeds in Precision Farming 22 and talked about the usual, no weed control, weeders, hoes and regular sprayers. Then I got to the part about See and Spray(TM) technology and went back to look at the field and it's yield and noticed I was taking a 10 point yield penalty over a hoe/weeder, even though I was using spot spraying.
If anyone want proof or is curious the proof is about 2/3 of the way through this video;



Then to make sure I wasn't wrong I watched Farmer Klien's video on weeds and he was talking about his perfect environmental score, but either didn't mention or didn't notice he was also taking a major yield penalty for using herbicide.

So then I went to check the "blog" on weeds and see and spray tech, and the blog says;

"The full score (30 points) is reached by using spot spraying technology. That way, you perfectly control weeds through minimum usage of herbicides while reaching the optimal yield. To use spot spraying technology, you will have to use the John Deere R732i PowrSpray, which is introduced with the Precision Farming Free DLC."

I'm submitting a bug report on this one, but as it stands you're better of to use a weeder/hoe and only get 20EV points than loose 10% of your yields. Or am I missing something here?

[raran]

Nope you're not missing anything, this is also confirmed in other vidz about this subject.

[ScotsDude73]

First time I tried spot spraying I got a yield penalty as well. I could not believe it and this is the recommended way to score 30 maximum points for weed control yet you get a reduction in yield. Has to be a bug??? Thanks for submitting a bug report.

[Doc3d]

But wouldn’t any use of herbicide reduce yields in the real world? Maybe 10% is a bit harsh, tho

[deerefarm]

Thanks guys for confirming I'm not crazy And you're welcome for the bug report Scottsdude. So now players chasing that "almighty" environmental score are going to turn of weed and plowing....

But wouldn’t any use of herbicide reduce yields in the real world? Maybe 10% is a bit harsh, tho

But that's the whole point of the technology Doc. I've read some info from other companies, and watched / read all the info John Deere has on their website. And it's the reason you pay so much money for the technology. See and Spray(TM) technology with all it's sensors and computers is supposed to be able to pinpoint a weed, even at an early stage of growth, and then specifically target that weed killing it before it takes away nutrients from the crops.
They even claim the tech is so accurate that they placed (for demo purposes) a weed in-between two rows of corn. Then on each side of the weed they place a strip of paper. Only something like 1/2 the paper on each side showed signs of herbicide being dropped/sprayed. That's why the companies selling this technology say it's so good. It reduces your herbicide usage as there is very little waste, It helps your yield as it get's rid of weeds as such a young stage of growth. And this is why it's supposed to be the future of farming, because it's good for the farm and good for the environment.

[Rasping rabbit]

I haven’t noticed a yield penalty and do tend to check. I wonder if, as it is ‘spot and spray’ if the penalty only applied to the area you spray? I am guessing the game could calculate that way as you can see on the field info if you miss the smallest areas with fert, or don’t quite make it to the edges etc.

[deerefarm]

I haven’t noticed a yield penalty and do tend to check. I wonder if, as it is ‘spot and spray’ if the penalty only applied to the area you spray? I am guessing the game could calculate that way as you can see on the field info if you miss the smallest areas with fert, or don’t quite make it to the edges etc.

It seems to be roughly the same as if you leave the weeds in place. So you're darned if you do and darned if you don't...


Tried this on one field;

Seed (direct drill), weeder with weeder right after before weeds even appear or crops grow, roll, then when crops are growing "see and spray" over a small patch, just enough for it to register. Full yield bonus, and 98% EV Score for that field. Not sure where the missing 2% is, but hey....

[ScotsDude73]

I tried preemptive spraying on Goldcrest Valley. After I seeded the field I hired a worker to spray the entire field with herbicide. Skipped the night and no weeds. Obviously its not as cost effective as a weeder, but you get maximum yield. I usually use a weeder in Precision Farming until it possibility gets a future update to fix it. Has anyone tried the sprayers that got updated for spot spraying???

[deerefarm]

Ok so I got a response back from Giant's support which basically says "Working As Intended";

If weeds are too high they still have a negative impact on the yield. The
herbicide just reduces this impact. It uses the same mechanics as in the
basegame without Precision Farming. Always recommended to spray the weeds early
enough to get the maximum yield.

But I'm spraying the day after the weeds appear, which are medium weeds because I used a direct drill for the minimal tillage requirement.

[this_is_gav]

But I'm spraying the day after the weeds appear, which are medium weeds because I used a direct drill for the minimal tillage requirement.

In the base game any weeds hit yield, the hit increasing the bigger you allow the weeds to get. I can't remember what the exact values are off the top of my head though (I'm thinking 5%, 10% and 15% reduction for small, medium and large weeds respectively). Presumably this is the same with 1.4 and PF.

The only way to get 100% yield using herbicide is to spray before the weeds appear (pre-emergent spraying). This works though hired helpers won't do it (as of 1.3 anyway).

Incidentally there are two more spot-sprayers on the ModHub as GIANTS added it to their Kverneland sprayer mods yesterday.

[ScotsDude73]

this_is _gav wrote: This works though hired helpers won't do it (as of 1.3 anyway).

Have to correct you there. Maybe not all maps, but I did try pre-emergent spraying on Goldcrest Valley and I was able spray the field with herbicide using a hired worker only just the other day. Seeded first then sprayed the field immediately after then skip the next month and got no weeds. I suppose its more expensive to use herbicide, but it looks like the only way to get full yield potential, but I dont think you get 30 points for spot spraying towards your field score using this method.

[Rasping rabbit]

I use the see and spray on my weeds when they are first grown, even though the tooltip says to hoe. Dunno if that makes a difference or not

[this_is_gav]

this_is _gav wrote: This works though hired helpers won't do it (as of 1.3 anyway).

Have to correct you there. Maybe not all maps, but I did try pre-emergent spraying on Goldcrest Valley and I was able spray the field with herbicide using a hired worker only just the other day.

Fair enough then, I'll have to give that a go. They definitely didn't work in FS19 nor FS22 in an earlier version - maybe it was added in 1.4 and/or PF, or maybe it was 1.2 where they didn't work and it was added in 1.3.

[deerefarm]

I use the see and spray on my weeds when they are first grown, even though the tooltip says to hoe. Dunno if that makes a difference or not

Yeah I was using my sprayer on weeds that said HOE, it got rid of the weeds but still left me with a penalty.

I tried the pre-emergent spraying and it worked with a regular sprayer but not a Spot Sprayer. With the regular sprayer I took a hit to my EV score. The other field I used a hoe on and got my yield back but had a slightly reduced EV score, not as bad as the sprayer one though.

So I reloaded and tried the same two fields again. One field I plowed using the Black Sheep Modding plow (9M / 10 MPH) and the other I used the Bourgault cultivator on (it's big but not shallow). Both fields took a major hit to the EV score for tillage, but then I used a direct drill seeder and it restored my Tillage to maximum. The next month I used the Spot Sprayer on the small weeds left by the cultivator, and it worked perfectly no penalty to yield and had a perfect EV score. Then I hopped across to the field I plowed, which obviously had no weeds but also only had a neutral EV score for weeds control. I literally turned the spot sprayer on and off, which I guess was enough to count, and my EV score went up to Perfect. So both test fields now have a perfect EV score and no yield loss.

Makes sense? Working as intended?

[Azfoor]

I did notice that the nitrogen went down a bit after using spot spray for weeds.!