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TRIMBLE
TO PURCHASE FRANCE-BASED PAG
SPRAYING COMPANY
Bilberry’s new AI and camera system for identifying weeds
Trimble Inc., a Sunnyvale, California-
based software, hardware, and services
technology company supporting
agriculture and other industries, is
purchasing Bilberry, a Paris, France-based
manufacturer of selective weed spraying
systems.
Founded in 2016, Bilberry has designed the
Intelligent
Spot Spraying System
—an AI (artificial intelligence)
and camera system—to identify weeds in real-time,
which the company said will allow “certain sprayers”
to be retrofitted with technology to target weeds
in a growing crop, via “green-on-green” spraying
technology.
Bilberry said that its Intelligent Spot Spraying System
reduces the usage of herbicide by more than 80
percent while protecting the environment and lowering
the costs for farmers. The system can work at all crop
stages and has provided Australian farmers with up to
97.5 percent in chemical savings.
Although this green-on-green technology has already
seen commercial deployment in Australia, Bilberry had
been looking to bring it to the North American market,
which is why earlier this year it was testing it on farms
in western Canada.
It was there that the system targeted broadleaf weeds
in cereal crops, grassy weeds in canola, and broadleaf
and grassy weeds in corn.
Trimble already has a weed spraying system—
WeedSeeker
—capable of identifying plants on bare
soil before a crop peeks out of the soil (aka green-on-
brown spraying), the company believes the Bilberry
acquisition will complement its lineup perfectly.
“Our planned acquisition of Bilberry builds out
Trimble’s crop protection portfolio by adding green-
on-green selective spraying capabilities and supports
our development of autonomous solutions,” stated
Jim
Chambers
, the Vice President of
Trimble Agriculture
.
He continued: “The Bilberry solution is brand agnostic
and compatible with a broad range of spraying
equipment manufacturers, which is ideal for mixed
fleet operations. This capability, together with existing
Trimble competencies, will enable us to expand our
role in the growing market for precision agriculture
solutions that can reduce input costs, create
efficiencies for our customers and drive sustainability
in farming.”
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ANDREW JOSEPH
FARMS.COM
“OUR PLANNED ACQUISITION OF
BILBERRY BUILDS OUT TRIMBLE’S
CROP PROTECTION PORTFOLIO BY
ADDING GREEN-ON-GREEN SELECTIVE
SPRAYING CAPABILITIES AND
SUPPORTS OUR DEVELOPMENT OF
AUTONOMOUS SOLUTIONS.”
PHOTO: bilberry.io