John Deere’s See and Spray technology continued its rapid climb in 2025 as farmers looked for ways to stretch input dollars, protect yields, and improve application efficiency. What started as a promising tool only a few seasons ago has now grown into one of the most widely adopted pieces of precision spraying technology in modern row crop production.
Josh Ladd, go-to-market manager for application equipment at John Deere, says this year offered the clearest picture yet of what See and Spray can do at scale.
Ladd says that growth reflects the system’s ability to find savings even in a year that came with heavier weed pressure. A wet spring across much of the Corn Belt pushed more weeds into the mix, but See and Spray operators still averaged about a 50 percent reduction in herbicide mix applied. That puts real dollars back into the operation while keeping field coverage consistent with what growers expect from a broadcast pass.
But the bigger storyline in 2025 came from a brand new angle. Deere teamed up with seven universities and several third-party research partners to study whether reducing unnecessary crop exposure to chemistry could have an impact on performance. After a full season of trials, they now have the numbers to back it up.
Soybeans were the first crop examined in the coordinated studies, and the yield gains caught quick attention from both farmers and agronomists. An average increase of two bushels per acre becomes meaningful across large acres, and some plots topped four bushels. Ladd says the work will continue in other crops, but the early data gives producers another metric to factor into their return on investment calculations.
Still, none of those benefits matter if the system cannot match the weed control farmers already know from broadcast applications. Ladd says maintaining that standard remains at the core of the system.
Ladd says that approach keeps See and Spray familiar to operators who want a higher level of efficiency without completely changing their application strategy. By holding back product in clean areas and delivering full coverage only where weeds are present, the machine remains both effective and economical.
With planning underway for the 2026 season, Ladd encourages farmers to connect with their local John Deere dealer to see the system firsthand, attend a field day, or arrange an on-farm demo. He says the dealer network has the parts, service knowledge, and experience to help growers understand where See and Spray can fit into their own operation.
