The farm’s Chief Agricultural Officer, Matt McGuire, likes the results of using smaller and more drones to apply product to crops. It takes longer than a plane or large drone, and current regulations limit three drones per operator. But smaller drones apply product more accurately, cutting down drift. And if one drone stops, the others can keep working.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms

JV Smith Companies adopted autothinners during the first generation of the machinery. The investment paid off. From the 20 crews JV Smith ran prior to using the thinners, it now uses eight.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms

Several iterations of auto weeders have hit the market – blades, fertilizer hot shots, for example. The most recent combines AI, cameras, and lasers, zapping weeds to within a half inch of a crop.

Just as the auto thinners reduced the number of crews JV Smith uses, McGuire is hopeful the new robotic laser weeder technology will help him trim a couple more crews.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms

A recent JV Smith adoption uses UV light on water destined for overhead sprinklers. It brings down bacteria counts and replaces or reduces chemical treatments like chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, peroxyacetic acid, or peracetic acid, which kills soil health.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms

There’s a lot of record keeping in ag, from time sheets to food safety forms to financial programs, and so on. McGuire took a look at several companies that needed JV Smith to conform to their system. In the end, he hired a company that had programmers to conform their system to how JV Smith operates.  

JV Smith has installed seed meters to achieve more accurate spacing, which is vital in vegetable production. This keeps spacing the same throughout the field and day, even as operators speed up or slow down, and conditions change. Controls and monitoring screens are right there with the operator.

JV Smith is using similar devices for fertilizer application and ground spray equipment.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms

This is precision ag technology at its best, McGuire says. This type of seed treatment was part of the solution for an incorrigible Bragada beetle problem.

A chemical in the seed coating greatly reduced the operation’s early season use of chemicals to just a fraction of a percent of chemical it would normally apply to the field. And it lasts twice as long.

It’s extremely worker safe and reduces the liability of transporting chemical around, McGuire says. It has eliminated pickup truck and fuel use. Happily, it works on other pests, too, eliminating further sprays for whitefly, flea beetle, crickets, grasshoppers, and aphids.
Photo courtesy of JV Smith Farms