East Prince potato farmers size up GPS-controlled sprayer

Members of the East Prince Agri-Environmental Association gathered in a farm field near Summerside Monday to see a GPS-controlled sprayer in action.

Aim Command is a new technology that uses geographical data from satellites to help farmers better control their spraying equipment as they apply pesticides to fields.

"It's an environmental problem, and people don't like seeing that kind of drift going around," said Rob Green, a member of the association. "So we want to try and change that."

The self-propeller sprayer used in the demonstration at Klondike Farms in Wilmot Valley was supplied by a local equipment dealer.

The 17 members of the newly-formed environmental group had a chance to operate the machinery and see for themselves how the new technology works.

'The economics of it is, can you afford not to?'

Dozens of individually-controlled nozzles actually adjust the size of pesticide droplets as they are sprayed, to reduce drift due to wind conditions. Satellite data from the GPS tracks which portions of the fields have already been sprayed, and turns nozzles on and off automatically, to prevent needless overlap.

But at a starting cost of $20,000 to $30,000, farmers are carefully weighing the cost.

"You have to be able to justify what the new technology can do for you," said farmer John Ramsay, "And put a reasonable price on that that can make it justifiable on your farms. And I would suggest a lot of farms can't really justify that at this point it time."

Members of the association will have access to the sprayer and its Aim Command system for the remainder of the 2015 growing season. Local equipment dealers say the system's benefits justify the price.

"The economics of it is, can you afford not to?" said Scott McLean, an equipment distributor with Green Lea Ag Centre.

"It's being a leader, doing it before you're told to do it because it's the right thing for the environment."

The East Prince Agri-Environmental Association says it plans to lobby government to help cover the cost.