Sprayer pricing, availability back to normal

Sprayers, like planters, have myriad upgrade and retrofit options available, keeping their used-unit market relatively flat. Prices and availability haven’t wildly fluctuated in recent years, as they have for tractors or combines. 

“Sprayers seem to be one piece of machinery that never has had the opportunity to be oversold,” says Moving Iron podcast host Casey Seymour. “Not because they aren’t available; people just aren’t looking to add an extra sprayer. It’s more of a ‘one in, one out’ market that seems to be on about a three-year trade cycle.”

Seymour has tracked equipment sales with data from TractorHouse since 2014. He notes that in February 2024, there were 3,156 sprayers on the market, close to the February 2021 inventory of 3,385. Numbers dropped in 2022 and 2023, to 2,109 and 1,391, respectively. But the dip wasn’t as large as in other segments.

Recent sale data

For self-propelled sprayers with 120-foot booms for the model year 2020 and newer, tractorhouse.com listed 100 completed auctions within the past year. The high price was a 2022 John Deere 410R in Wisconsin that sold for $458,000; it had fewer than 200 hours, and four remaining years of extended warranty. The low was a Rogator 2020 RGI300C in Iowa, with more than 3,000 hours, which brought $106,000. The average price was $265,430.

Seymour notes that the used sprayer market is fairly evenly distributed among units up to 4,000 hours, meaning machines are available at multiple price points. 

“If I’m a dealer, and someone comes in looking for a 1,000-hour sprayer or a 200-hour sprayer, I should have access to what they’re looking for,” he says.

Pricing

Prices overall have increased since 2020. 

“Newer sprayers have more advanced technology, and in my opinion, that absolutely justifies the price increase,” Seymour says. 

Another factor is widespread upgrade availability, allowing older iron to retrofit new technology. 

“To me, that’s the wild card, because now, every new machine is in direct competition with every used machine on the lot, and every machine a farmer already owns,” he says. “Nobody’s put a value to that yet, but it’s coming down the line.”

Technology

If you’re mainly looking for new technology, retrofit and upgrade options abound. John Deere offers a robust upgrade lineup.

“We offer multiple levels of upgrades that allow different capability,” says Jonathan Chase, vice president of marketing and shared services. “See and Spray Premium is available back to model year 2018 on John Deere sprayers.”

See and Spray Premium uses cameras and machine learning to distinguish crops from weeds, spraying those only. The technology reduces overall herbicide usage and is accurate at operating speeds up to 12 mph. 

As the technology advances, Chase says, John Deere regularly updates software, allowing second- and third-generation equipment owners to have the latest and greatest features. 

See and Spray Premium costs $25,000 for a 120-foot steel boom on 15- or 20-inch spacing. The sprayer also must have a factory-installed ExactApply system or Performance Upgrade Kit. A subscription fee of $4 per acre in soybeans and cotton, $3 per acre in corn, and $1 per acre for fallow is also applied. 

“We want [the ability to upgrade] to have a low up-front cost and to get better over time, adding different crops, different weeds, to get smarter and smarter,” Chase says. “We offer a subscription model that allows you the ability to upgrade the technology on what you have, when you want to use it.”

Illinois-based Precision Planting has two sprayer retrofit systems designed to increase efficiency in the field: SymphonyNozzle and ReClaim. 

“SymphonyNozzle is a pulse width modulation [PWM] control system that allows for individual nozzle control,” says senior product manager Luke Stuber. “The biggest advantage is the ability to set a spray pressure and a spray rate, so that independent of travel speed, the pressure stays the same.”

Stuber adds that the SymphonyNozzle system allows optimizing ground speed for conditions, not pressure, saving the average farmer around 4% on chemical usage. 

“Some people don’t realize that on a tight turn, the inside tip is about a 2x rate, while the outside tip is a half rate, but SymphonyNozzle can compensate for that,” he says. 

The ReClaim system is designed to recirculate spray from booms back into the tank, which can potentially save 10 to 20 gallons of product daily, Stuber says. 

“If I rinse at night, the next morning I have water in my boom that I need to get out before I start spraying,” he says. “ReClaim allows me to flip a switch and recirculate from my main boom line back into the tank while I’m filling or getting ready to spray. Nothing is wasted.”

Any ¾-inch to 1-inch sprayer can accommodate SymphonyNozzle, and any sprayer can add ReClaim. There is no subscription fee; local Precision Planting dealers provide pricing.

Should you own your own sprayer?

Maintenance costs, labor, and licensing are all important factors when considering whether to own a sprayer versus hiring a custom application. 

The case for owning

“I think anytime you can put a sprayer on the farm is a benefit,” says Moving Iron’s Casey Seymour. “The two biggest reasons are being able to spray on your own schedule, and the ability to spread the cost of the sprayer over all your acres.” 

He adds that you need to consider the cost of having a qualified operator, if that’s a hired person. But he believes even adding personnel usually pencils out in favor of owning. 

“If you can spray one day earlier, it can add to your bottom line, whereas one day late can take it away,” Seymour says.

Iowa State University created a decision tool, which allows you to plug in real costs and production data to help determine return on investment for several major pieces of equipment, including self-propelled sprayers.

The case for custom

Mike Schacherbauer, crop adviser at Simplot Grower Solutions in Roanoke, Illinois, manages a team of custom applicators. He estimates only 20% to 25% of his customers choose to apply their own fertilizer and crop protection products. 

“Some things I would want someone to consider before purchasing a sprayer would be the initial investment, plus the maintenance, repairs, and cost associated with finding someone to run it,” he says.

A private applicator license is required to purchase and apply restricted-use pesticides in Illinois, involving classroom instruction and a test every three years, plus a fee. Dicamba certification requires a separate test. 

“If you choose to buy your own sprayer and mix your own chemicals, the responsibility is solely on the farmer,” Schacherbauer says. “You must be able to read and understand the labels to make sure the right rates and products are going into the tank. Tank mixes are becoming much more involved as the number of products that go into a mix has increased over the years. Plus, you should carry liability coverage in case of misapplication or drift complaints.

“I really see custom application as a protection for the farmer. It takes the risk and liability off of them,” he adds.

Protecting the crop

June 1 is an interesting time to look at a farm’s asset sheet, says Tristan Hermann, product manager at Precision Planting. “The crop is already coming up out of the ground, we’ve applied all the fertilizer for the season, and we’ve paid for all the other inputs for the year,” he says. “Assets, like buildings and machinery, make up part of the picture, but the category that dwarfs them all is the potential value of the crop in the field. And it is vulnerable.”

He says the sprayer is the last proactive tool available, and it’s only as effective as the person operating it. 

Herrmann has quantified operator stress levels by measuring heart rate while actively spraying and simply driving between fields. 

“When the operator is applying a post-emergence pass, the heart rate is high, the stress level is high,” he says. “You can see when they finish the field and pull out onto the road that immediately calms down, but when they pull into the next field, it jumps right back up again.

“It’s just telling us what we already know: The stress of operating a sprayer is real,” he concludes.