Arizona dealer pairs spray drones with live-algae biology for desert crop precision

Precision specialists at 24-store John Deere dealer Stotz Equipment are combining DJI spray drones with an emerging live-algae biostimulant system to adapt precision agriculture tools to Arizona’s extreme desert growing conditions, according to a July 8 dealer profile.

Jake Nordenberg, a precision ag specialist covering hay, cotton and wheat growers around Buckeye, Arizona, said standard Deere technology built for corn and soybean row crops often needs reworking for the region’s hay-dominant operations and rocky, low-rainfall soils, where some fields receive under an inch of rain a year. “See & Spray doesn’t work for hay, right? But we can take this DJI drone, fly it, do a target application map, find out where the weeds are and then send it to the ground rig,” Nordenberg said.

During a farm visit, the dealer’s team also spotted a MyLand system in use, four large tanks that cultivate live algae and other microbial biomass on-site before adding it to a farm’s irrigation water to support crop growth, an approach growers are increasingly pairing with drone-based targeted spraying. Stotz Equipment’s three-person data analytics team separately helps growers cut idle time and rightsize horsepower using John Deere Operations Center data, part of a broader push to translate precision tools into savings for desert operations with year-round harvest cycles.

Source: Precision Farming Dealer