By Lance Isbister  March 16 2010

Agricultural industry representatives have a prime opportunity to see three new smart tools on display which will save farmers money and be better for the environment when spraying.

The new Methven based precision agriculture business Agri Optics will showcase a weed sprayer that identifies weed from other plants, a fertiliser sprayer which leaves patches that are already high in nitrogen and a plant vitality reader at their launch today.

Agri Optics father and daughter team Craige and Jemma Mackenzie have imported sensor technology from the United States, which could make a big impact on how farmers and groundskeepers apply chemicals to the land.

"They are quite revolutionary in terms of reducing impacts on the land and you don't need a PhD to use them," Mr Mackenzie said.

The Greenseeker maps plant chlorophyll and collates the data over an area to show farmers which vegetation is healthy and which needs fertiliser application.

The Weedseeker can differentiate weeds from other plants and ground debris using infra-red rays.

These sensors are attached to a special vehicle mounted spray tank that automatically sprays weeds when the sensor passes over them which, is a more efficient way than conventional blanket application of herbicides or manual spot-spraying.

From this technology Mr Mackenzie developed the Smart-N, which uses a similar principle to the Weedseeker to analyse areas that are already high in nitrogen from dairy effluent and withholds application until it senses areas low in nitrogen when it activates its spray.

"We've put all the tools together that help us run our farm businesses and developed a system that farmers can apply to their own operation.

"There are a lot of tools out there but sometimes its tying the data together that makes all the difference to bottom-line profit."