ExactRate vs ExactShot: John Deere Fertilizer Systems Explained

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Tony: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology Podcast. And I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, we are going to talk some comparison between John Deere's ExactRate versus the ExactShot Fertilizer Systems. With that, let's dive into the show. Like I said, we're going to do a little compare, contrast, and talk some differences between two of the fertilizer systems that John Deere has on the market for the planters. So we're talking fertilizer, John Deere has the ExactRate System, and we also have the ExactShot System.

Now we take a couple steps back and we go to just traditional fertilizer. We had a ground-driven pump, so a thumper pump, a ground drive pump with a wheel that contacts the ground, generates power to a piston pump, and then pushes the fertilizer out of the delivery system. We take a step forward and we get to a very simple hydraulically-driven fertilizer system. Numerous different ways, numerous different systems out there. All we're doing is getting rid of that ground-driven pump and we're going to a hydraulic-driven pump. From there, in comes the ExactRate System. So in the ExactRate System, what we have the ability to do, so it's, again, it's still just a traditional hydraulically-driven pump. John Deere has a pump system that goes onto the planter. Some of the pumps are on the wings. Some of the pumps go out back behind the planter, depending on the model planter you have.

The pump is all the same across the board, whether it's ExactRate or ExactShot. Now where the differences start to come in, first we're going to kind of dive into the ExactRate and all the components there, and then we'll jump over to ExactShot and talk some of those differences.

So we take the hydraulic pump that John Deere put on. We push the product or pump the product out to the stainless steel plumbing or boom across the top of the planter. And then this is where it gets unique, that we take that step ahead from a traditional fertilizer system. What John Deere did is they actually included or added the ExactApply nozzle body to our fertilizer boom. So the same ExactApply nozzle body that we're utilizing on our ExactApply sprayers, we're now using that on our planter for fertilizer placement. What this gives us the ability to do is it gives us that pulse width modulation.

There's a nozzle A out one side and a nozzle B out the other side. And what we're doing on the planters is nozzle A feeds one row, nozzle B feeds the row right beside it. So there's one ExactApply nozzle body for every two rows across your planter. So with the pulse width modulation, it gives us a few different things that a traditional hydraulically driven fertilizer system will not give us. So we have the ability for turn compensation. So just like our electric drive planters, we can slow down the application on the inside of the planter, speed up the application on the outside of the planter to make sure we're getting down the right rate at the right time. And we're not over applying on the inside and under applying on the outside. The other thing that it gives us is the ability to control the fertilizer application row by row. So just like section control, just like our electric drive planters, we're able to shut off each individual row as we come into existing coverage or maybe we're dealing with boundaries or things like that. So we are able to shut all of that off row by row as we go. Very awesome system.

The other thing that really benefits from the pulse width modulation is we have more speed variation. So on a traditional either ground driven or traditional hydraulically driven system, we are limited on speed based on the inline orifice that we have. So on the ExactRate system, we're using that pulse width modulation to flow the product. We're not needing an inline orifice to create that back pressure. So with the orifice, we are limited because the orifice is only so big and we can only go so fast or so slow. Otherwise, we're not going to get the right rate based on what we're targeting. With the pulse width modulation, just like our exact apply sprayers, we have the ability to pulse faster or slower based on our rate and what speed we're traveling. So when you're backed into a corner or you're just getting going, we're still going to put down say in-furrow five gallons per acre at five miles an hour, and we're able to speed all the way up to upwards of 10 miles an hour and continue to put down that same five gallon per acre in-furrow rate. With an orifice, we're likely limited either on the top end and getting the rate down, or we're limited on the bottom end and actually getting the right pressure from our system and applying the proper product that way as well. So that's the thing with the ExactRate.

There's also two different versions of the ExactRate. We have a low flow and a high flow, and really what that comes down to is what is your method of placement? Are we doing an in-furrow application where we're going to be putting on let's say three to seven gallons per acre, or are we doing a high flow application, maybe it's a two by two configuration where we're putting down 20, 25 gallons of product at planting time. Now that being said, there's a couple different options when you're ordering this system. You can get the low flow rate in-furrow application. You can get the high rate with frame mounted single disc openers, so that would be your two by two, or you can get the high rate less the openers. Now that could play into, there's some two by two systems out there that are putting product out the back behind the closing wheels. There's some other frame mounted or two by two openers that get mounted in front of the row unit. There's a lot of different ways you could configure this, just knowing that if you're doing the in-furrow application, you're probably going to have that low flow or low rate setup. If you're doing the two by two or the high rate nitrogen application, you're probably going to need that high flow rate. Just keep that in mind when you're thinking about this and doing this.

The other neat part about the ExactRate system is we actually have a keypad out the back of the planter. We are able to engage and disengage our hydraulically driven pump, as well as do nozzle flow checks and things like that, right from the back of the planter with a keypad. Very similar to on the ExactApply sprayers with the solution command system, we are able to push those buttons and run those nozzle flow checks without being in the cab of the machine. Very beneficial for the operator, the farmer, to be able to do that stuff without running back and forth into the cab.

The other piece to this is if a customer is looking at putting down, maybe you want to put down both in-furrow and a two by two fertilizer application, today we do not have the ability to piggyback ExactRate systems onto each other, but what we can do is add a traditional hydraulically driven pump system, add a rate controller, and piggyback that in. Say our ExactRate maybe is going to control our in-furrow fertilizer, then our secondary system with our GreenStar Rate Controller, Rate Controller 2000, any of those setups, we can then do a two by two or a high flow situation. There are some combinations that you can work with. It really comes down to what you're looking to do. The low flow rate, three to 10 gallons per acre, I think I said three to seven, it's three to 10. Then the high rate or high flow is seven to 30 gallons per acre. Depending on the product you're looking to put down. That's really the ExactRate. We're taking a step from a traditional hydraulically driven fertilizer system. We're adding the pulse width modulation to give us that variation in speed, give us the turn compensation, the individual row control, all of that type of stuff. From there, we take a step forward or another step up to go to ExactShot.

This is a new product that was just released. 2025 is the first production model year with ExactShot in the field. We here at RDO Equipment, we got the opportunity to partner with John Deere testing ExactShot prior to its public launch. We got to learn a lot about the system, how it benefits the customer, how we can maintain yield by reducing our fertilizer inputs. It's a really cool system. With ExactShot, the biggest differences are the plumbing and where our electric solenoids are placed within the system. I talked about the hydraulically driven pump. Same pump on ExactRate, same pump on ExactShot. Now we go to our stainless steel boom or plumbing across the top of the planter. That's the same. The difference is that we no longer have the exact apply nozzle bodies on that stainless steel boom. It is now just a wet boom supplying the rest of the system. We get rid of those nozzle bodies and we are actually placing a nozzle body on each individual row down in the furrow. Each one of those nozzle bodies has its own solenoid to control the pulse width modulation. So that's the biggest difference between the ExactRate and the ExactShot.

Now there's some use case differences between them. ExactShot is for in-furrow only. This is meant to be dosing fertilizer right on the seed. So ExactShot is not capable of having that two by two configuration. It really is meant for in-furrow application. And when we do that, what we're doing, if you think about a continuous stream of fertilizer at say five gallons per acre, what we're doing is we're just shutting off the fertilizer flow in between the seeds. So the seed itself is still getting the same concentration of fertilizer if we were to be doing a continuous stream of five gallon per acre, but we're going to turn off that nozzle body in between each seed. Now you can adjust that length. You have the ability to pick a one inch dose length, two inch dose length, or three inch dose length. And when I say dose length, I'm talking about the amount of fertilizer that's being put on and around the seed. So are we putting one inch over the top of the seed, two inch over the top of the seed, or three inches over top of the seed, that's going to play a factor in the cost savings that you're going to see with ExactShot. But with that in-furrow, we're shutting off where there is no seed.

So in all the testing that we've done here at RDO Equipment, the testing that John Deere did in partnership with us, as well as other John Deere dealerships across the United States, we're able to see roughly 60% of fertilizer input savings while maintaining yield. So in the studies that show, there's little to no yield loss because we're still getting that same concentration of fertilizer right on top of that seed, just not putting it in between the seeds. So like I said, the biggest thing there is it's in-furrow application on seed.

Now one of the things to think about, there is kind of a, I call it an economic threshold with the ExactShot fertilizer system. So ExactShot does have a use-based license. So we do, there's a fee of $5 per acre when the dosing mode is turned on. So that being said, we need to be able to save enough fertilizer application to make up and go above and beyond that $5 per acre application. So what John Deere has said is roughly on a 30-inch spacing planter, roughly 42,000 seeds per acre is going to be your population or your seeding rate threshold. Anything above that, what starts to happen is we're not turning off long enough to see the product savings to overcome that $5 per acre fee. So right now, today, the way the system is designed, it really is meant for corn. You know, that 42,000 seeds per acre and below is where you're going to see the most savings here. Now, that being said, that could change in the future. John Deere is always innovating these products and coming out with new use cases, new ways to do things. So we'll see what happens in the future.

The other piece to that five-acre, utilizing the dosing, even when we're utilizing, and I guess I should mention that too, exact shot can also be utilized in a exact rate method of application. So a customer, say you've got your 24-row planter and you're planting both corn and soybeans with that, you can turn off dosing mode, switch it over to a continuous mode, and it'll then band a continuous stream of fertilizer. So if you're putting down maybe a liquid soy green or something like that on your soybeans or any other crops that you plant, you can utilize ExactShot in a method of, say, a more traditional fertilizer application. The cool part is, is we're still getting turn compensation. We're still getting that pulse width modulation to give us that speed variation from, let's say four to 10 miles an hour, five to 10 miles an hour. We're still able to get the right rate down for all of that.

The other piece to ExactShot is because of how the product flows and we're turning it on and off and we need that band of fertilizer to be placed in a certain manner, there is essentially a spray tip. So just similar to some of the spray tips we're using, now there are specific tips that are utilized on the exact shot system. I encourage you to visit with your local John Deere dealer, your RDO account manager, product specialist to fully understand the entire system that is out there. Both of these systems are upgrade compatible. So depending on the model year, the make model and model year of your planter, some of these planters can be upgraded to these fertilizer systems. You can also obviously order this equipment new on planters from the factory. One thing to note on both the exact rate and the ExactShot systems, today they are only on the split row planters or dual rank planters, so like our 1795s. We only have these fertilizer system capabilities on the front rank. So what would traditionally be referred to as the corn rows, your 30 inch spacing on the front rank is where the fertilizer is plumbed to. We do not have any of these capabilities on the rear rank. So something to keep in mind if you do run one of those dual rank or split row planters.

So those are just a few of the differences in talking ExactRate versus ExactShot. To recap a little, it's really going to come down to what you're looking to do. You're looking for a lot of product savings and you farm a handful of acres of corn. Maybe ExactShot is the way to go. One of the things I've been telling people is exact shot really, it's one of those technologies that you can put hard numbers to and it pays for itself very quickly just because of the immense product savings that we're seeing. So of course, the cost of your fertilizer is going to play a factor. The number of your seeding rate or your population, how many seeds per acre are you putting down? How often is that able to turn off? And then the number of acres that you cover with corn, all of that is going to play a factor on how quick you see a return on this investment and how much your savings are. But there really is a, it's a quick ROI on a product like this.

Now if you're looking to do something more advanced than a traditional hydraulic drive system but you don't want to quite go to a use-based license technology like ExactShot, maybe you've got some other crops you're utilizing or you're planting, maybe exact rate is the right answer for you. Getting that speed variation, curve compensation, individual row control, maybe you need that high rate application. Maybe you're putting down a high rate of nitrogen in a two-by-two scenario, then we need to go with that ExactRate.

So I encourage you if you're curious or interested in either of these fertilizer systems, go out, talk to your local John Deere dealer. If you're in the RDO area, stop in, talk to your local account manager or product specialist at RDO Equipment Company and we will get things, all the information you're looking for. And yeah, you can look into upgrading your current planter that you have or maybe purchasing a new planter with this technology on it.

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