Tool developed at Montana State aims to help farmers implement new technologies

BOZEMAN - In the constantly changing environment of precision agriculture, it can be difficult to winnow through the array of available tools and technologies becoming available for use by farmers and ranchers. To help guide those decisions, two faculty members in the Montana State University College of Agriculture have developed a tool for estimating the return on investment associated with one of the most high-impact precision ag resources.

Ricardo Pinto, an assistant professor at MSU's Northern Agricultural Research Center in Havre, heard from producers that herbicide resistance in weeds was becoming an increasingly intractable problem. New technology such as precision smart sprayers can detect individual weeds in a field and selectively spray them, as well as enable producers to apply specific herbicide blends that are more likely to kill herbicide-resistant plants. But tools like smart sprayers can be expensive, totaling up to $150,000 in some cases.

"Depending on your operation, it makes sense," said Pinto. "You can have your payback period in one, maybe two years depending on the acres in your weed infestation. We had an opportunity to develop a platform where producers can say, 'Does this precise spray technology work in my situation or not?'"

To make those questions easier to answer, Pinto and Kelsey Larson developed the Smart Spray Annual ROI Calculator, a free and easy-to-use digital tool where producers can plug in numbers relevant to their own operations and determine how much time it would take for them to save enough money to justify the cost of new tools. Users plug in values such as their current herbicide application rate and frequency, the estimated weed coverage in their field, the price of a smart spray system and their field acreage. The tool then calculates savings in both dollars and reduced chemical application.

For Pinto and Larson, who both conduct outreach through MSU Extension in addition to their research, the opportunity to develop resources that producers can use on their farms was motivating.

"Many of these environmental or precision agriculture practices are going to make sense on some operations for some people, but they're not going to make sense everywhere. There are no cut-and-paste solutions," said Larson, who grew up in Bozeman and received her doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before joining the faculty in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics in January. "It was exciting to have a concrete way to help Montana producers to figure out what makes sense for them."

Smart spray technologies use sensors that can identify a single weed among crop plants, turning nozzles on and off automatically to apply herbicides and pesticides only where they are necessary. When properly implemented, they can save time and money, vastly decreasing the amount of input necessary to manage weeds.

Because farmers can plug in the specific values for their operation, the new calculator can provide tailored information based on the variations across Montana's ecosystems and geography. Less herbicide and pesticide application positively impacts soil health and saves water as well as costly herbicides.

An example calculation in the online tool estimates that for a 1,000-acre farm applying 10 gallons of herbicide per acre three times per year, savings could total nearly $60,000 per year. Those savings could cover the cost of a $75,000 smart spray system in less than a year and a half.

There is also potential, Pinto said, for increased yield when herbicides are applied more sparingly, because plants don't have to metabolize chemicals that are broadcast over an entire field. Exploring that question is part of his future research plan.

"In pulse crops, for example, we have a really important disease called root rot that is associated with the level of stress of the plant," Pinto said. "If the plant is more stressed because of herbicide application, it would be more susceptible to that disease. This is one thing that we are advancing, to better understand the impact of those products in terms of yield and plant fitness in general."

The calculator, Larson said, is designed to be "a living tool." More metrics will be added over time to further tailor the information producers can get from it, and both she and Pinto welcome feedback from MSU Extension agents and farmers who have made use of it. The two wrote a guide on how to use the tool, and since the its unveiling in May, the calculator has had users in not only several U.S. states, but also in Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and China.

Pinto himself is originally from Brazil and did part of his graduate studies at MSU. Returning to Montana and doing work that can tangibly help growers is extremely rewarding, he said.

"I always had Montana in my heart, so when the position opened in Havre, it was a perfect opportunity for me to continue my effort to help producers understand how they can take advantage of different technologies that we have in the market and most importantly, how we can optimize the use of our inputs," he said.