Henty Machine of the Year: GUSS autonomous sprayer wins top honour

A joint venture between global machinery giant John Deere and a Californian start-up has been named Machine of the Year.

Henty Machine of the Year was presented to Arron Hutcheon from Hutcheon & Pearce, for GUSS autonomous sprayers, by head judge Warren Scheetz.

Honours for the machine of the year at the Henty Machinery Field Days have gone to horticulture this year, with an autonomous orchard sprayer taking the top gong.

The unmanned machine, known as GUSS, is a joint venture between John Deere and GUSS, a United States-based company, and allows orchards to be sprayed more efficiently and effectively.

Its physical attributes – seven metres long but just 1.9 metres high and 2.3m wide – allow it to spray orchards without damaging the trees or vines.

Henty Machine of the Year: HMFD Chairman, Nigel Cheetz, Warren Scheetz, head judge from HMFD, Arron Hutcheon and Andrew Watt from Hutcheon & Pearce. Picture: Andy Rogers

Using technology known as Select Spray, the machine can identify the target tree and precisely supply the amount of spray needed, regardless of height and canopy size. It sells for about $US307,000.

Judge Warren Scheetz from Henty said the machine could be used for a range of horticultural crops and offered the horticultural industry a valuable means of spraying in an efficient, safe and cost effective manner.

But he said the machine could also see the development of technology for broadacre cropping.

“This marks a significant milestone in the journey towards sustainable and intelligent farming practices,” Mr Scheetz said.

GUSS was one of 23 machines and equipment entered in the coveted machine of the year. Highly commended went to The Shepherd Feedlot Autodrafter entered by Justin Dunn.

Last year, Machine of the Year was won by a MacDon draper header.