Kelly Hills Launches AI-Powered Platform For Crop Protection
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During its 2nd Annual Field Day this month, Kelly Hills introduced SpraySense, an autonomous application intelligence product developed through the company’s accelerator program, The Forge, which is designed to unite leading agtech and robotics innovators to co-develop actionable solutions in accelerated timeframes.
SpraySense marks the first product to graduate from The Forge into commercial packaging. The Forge brought together top agricultural and drone technology companies – including Yamaha Precision Agriculture, Pyka, Precision AI, Scanit Technologies, Heinen Brothers Agra Services, and Taranis – to co-develop solutions that address one of farming’s most persistent questions: When is the right time to apply fungicide?
Efforts were originally focused on optimizing fungicide application for corn and soybean growers, but collaborative efforts exceeded expectations, resulting in the creation of SpraySense, an end-to-end AI-driven recommendation and application system. The platform synthesizes aerial imagery, weather and environmental conditions, disease risk models, and traditional agronomy to deliver real-time recommendations on whether, when, where and how to spray.
“We definitely didn’t set out to build a new product, we were trying to solve a timing and location problem,” said Lukas Koch, CEO of Kelly Hills. “But the collaborative chemistry within the first Forge cohort was so strong, and the resulting solution so impactful, that it just made sense to evolve it into a standalone offering.”
SpraySense not only advises growers and ag service providers on optimal spray windows, but also integrates with autonomous flight and spray systems from partners like Pyka and Yamaha. The result is a vertically integrated, automated solution that connects insight with action, ultimately aiming to close the loop between disease pressure and rapid precision response.
The Future of SpraySense
While its debut application targets fungicide optimization, SpraySense is designed as a modular, extensible platform. Kelly Hills has announced plans to adapt the technology to other crop inputs including:
Fertilizer
Biologicals
Herbicides
Insecticides
These new modules will maintain the same core capability: delivering smart, field-level recommendations backed by real-time data and paired with autonomous execution.
“Though this is just version number one of SpraySense, it represents the future of input application in agriculture by creating a timely, data-driven, and hands-free tech stack for growers and service providers completely agnostic of the application method,” explained Koch. “I’ll be adding soil and digital twin modeling to the package in the near future. This is a leap toward reducing waste, improving yields, and supporting both sustainability and profitability.”