Sensors

AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:08:46 GMT

AgZen announces an agreement with Corteva to further “explore the commercial potential” of AgZen’s AI-powered crop spraying optimization technology, RealCoverage.

The news comes on the heels of Corteva’s big announcement on Oct. 1 , detailing the crop protection multinational’s plan to split its crop protection and seeds businesses.

AgZen, a tech startup spun out of MIT, is making a name for itself by pioneering feedback optimization for spray applications — a new approach the company thinks has potential to improve farmer outcomes and reduce crop input costs.

(AgZen)

AgZen’s first product, RealCoverage, is a retrofit kit that can be bolted onto any sprayer to measure and optimize the number of drops of agrochemicals applied to crops. The system features a boom-mounted sensor that analyzes the coverage and quality of spray applications in real-time, displaying actionable data to a tablet mounted in the cab. Farmers can use the data to optimize the physical settings on spray rigs, both self-propelled and pull-behind, to increase coverage.

The startup says its system works by leveraging AI and cutting-edge computer vision, and customers have used RealCoverage to save 30% to 50% on input costs.

Farmer Feedback

(AgZen)

Northwest Indiana farmer Bryan Brost slapped a RealCoverage system onto his Hagie STS 16 high-clearance sprayer to use on his waxy corn and soybean crops. He says it has helped boost his spray program efficiency overall by reducing application rates while maintaining optimal coverage throughout his 12,000-acre operation.

“The payback came in the first year,” he tells Farm Journal via text message. “We have increased our acres [covered] per day with less hours on the machine, the operator and the nurse tanks supplying product [to the sprayer].”

Corey McIntosh set the technology loose across his 4,000 acre spread in Missouri Valley, Iowa. He is looking forward to using the data to improve his application efficiency across the board. He’s also letting his neighbors and local retailer in on the secret.

“I was getting a chem shuttle refilled at [the] co-op, these guys have always been complimentary of our weed control, I asked them: ‘What percentage of leaf surface area do you think you are covering with your sprayers?’ One of their best operators said he thought 50% coverage. The salesman next to him said it would definitely be more than 60%,” McIntosh says.

“They were shocked when I told them we were at 9% to 10%, but nobody has had ever had a way to quantify this before,” he adds. “We are really looking forward to making improvements.”

Since launching on the market in 2024, AgZen says it covered more than 970,000 commercial acres of application across the U.S. on row crops and specialty crops.

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Tips And Tech Tools To Take The Sting Out Of Harvesting A Highly Variable Corn Crop

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 18:19:16 GMT

Are you harvesting high-moisture corn this fall, and did that same corn experience significant foliar disease pressure? If the variable conditions crop scouts noted on Farm Journal’s Pro Farmer Crop Tour hold true for most of the Corn Belt , then the answer to both of those questions is likely “yes” — and that means you will need to adjust your harvest workflow.

Here are some tips and technologies to help get this crop off as efficiently and stress-free as possible, and then keep it in good condition until you’re ready to sell it:

Plan For Success
The first shift you need to consider is the sequence in which you harvest your fields. If you have a field that was inundated with higher disease pressure than others, and the crop is still standing, you want to prioritize that one over fields where the visual symptoms of disease pressure are not as widespread.

Related: Maximize Soybean Yields — Harvesting This Week Could Be Key

“It’s just [a matter of] expediting the process and getting that infected field harvested quicker than what you had anticipated, which a lot of times comes with higher moisture corn,” says Tyler Kilfoil, digital bin manager, AGI.

Calibrate Yield Monitors

Yield monitor by Darrell Smith

(Darrell Smith)

Farm Journal Field Agronomist Ken Ferrie is worried some farmers might “get into depressed mode” and skip over yield monitor calibrations this fall. Even if yields appear to be below your expectations, Ferrie says these yield maps will be valuable in the years to come. So, get that yield monitor calibrated.

“Even if the yield [data] is depressing, get a good spatial calibration on that yield monitor for both beans and corn,” Ferrie says. “So, when we sit back and the combine is in the shed, we can go through all this data, and it’ll help us make some decisions.”

This year’s data could be particularly useful because it has been such a difficult year, agronomically speaking.

“There’ll be things that show up [in the data] that you don’t see every year, and those yield maps are going to be key,” he says. “That’s the data we need. [It’s] going to help you make decisions not only next year, but for years after.”

Combine Automation Can Help

Two men with a tablet in front of a John Deere vehicle.

(Premier Crop Systems)

Once you have a game plan for attacking your fall harvest and your yield monitor is set, there are new tools within some combines that can help manage variability from field to field.

If you’re running a new John Deere combine (model year 2025 and up), consider using Predictive Ground Speed Automation (PGSA) and Harvest Settings Automation this fall, says John Deere combine specialist Tim Ford.

Related: 5 Yield-Saving Combine Adjustments For Touch-And-Go Fall Harvest

PGSA is a sensing technology that serves as another set of eyes for the combine operator, scanning the crop continuously 28' ahead of the corn head. It reads crop height, biomass and can even detect downed crops. It will speed up where it sees lighter biomass and slow down and take its time in higher biomass.

Harvest Settings Automation works in a similar fashion. The operator sets acceptable levels of grain loss in the combine controller, and then sensors within the machine will read the crop ahead and adjust things like header height and speed to make sure the combine harvests within your set parameters.

“These two systems act as a teammate. We’re not taking the operator out of the cab. We’re using sensors, data and technology to take a heavy burden off the operator and put it on the automation,” Ford says.

Bin Ready? Set It And Forget It

Grain Bin By Lori Hays

(File Photo )

Once the crop is off, AGI’s Kilfoil says the next decision is figuring out what to do with it.

“If it was high moisture when you picked it, that involves getting it down to a proper storage [moisture] level, maybe even running it through an eco-dryer to pull the moisture out of the corn,” he says. “From there, the final landing place is in the bin.”

Once you have this highly variable crop dried down and nestled in the bin, you need visibility into how the grain itself takes to storage conditions, all while keeping a close eye on weather conditions outside the bin, too. That’s where a grain bin monitoring system with automation can pay off — freeing up your time and attention while the system does the checking for you. And it’s just safer than manually checking bins.

“Grain bin monitoring technology is your eyes inside your bank account,” Kilfoil says. “For guys who aren’t typically used to shelling higher moisture corn and storing higher moisture corn, a product like AGI’s Bin Manager lets you sleep in peace at night. It gives you eyes inside the bin, and it’s going to fully automate your system and help with that [storage] process and decision making.”

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Survey Says: Smart Farming Has Big Impact On U.S. Farms, And There’s Room for More

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:27:29 GMT

Smart farming technologies, like smart irrigation and targeted spraying systems, are helping farms reduce water use, burn less fuel and optimize fertilizer and pesticide applications. Those gains have led to a 5% increase in overall crop production in the U.S. in just the last five years.

That’s all according to newly released data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturer’s (AEM) “The Benefits of Precision Ag In The U.S.” report. You can read the full white paper study here .

“The overarching message is precision ag enables farmers to maximize use of their inputs,” says Austin Gellings, senior director of agricultural services, AEM. “We’re maximizing every drop of what we’re putting on our crops and on our soil, and I think that’s a very powerful message.”

Gellings found two specific aspects of the study results most compelling:

(Lori Hays)

U.S. farms have achieved an overall 5% reduction in annual water usage by adopting smart farming technologies like smart irrigation systems and soil moisture sensors. Gellings says the savings equates to about 824,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of fresh water saved. It takes about 5 million standard 16 oz. bottled waters to fill just one Olympic-size swimming pool, he adds.

(Lori Hays)

Farmers who adopt targeted smart spraying application systems, like John Deere’s See & Spray and CNH Industrial’s SenseApply, can reduce America’s overall annual herbicide usage up to 55% if full adoption of the technology is achieved. The study defines full adoption as 90% of the total number of active farms in the U.S.

“We also found potential for an additional 6% increase in annual crop production with higher precision technology adoption rates,” he says. “It’s clear these technologies show almost unlimited potential in reducing inputs while increasing our output.

“[Technology is] a tool in the toolbox that helps our farmers step up to the challenges they face every single day, like they’ve always done. Our farmers always find a way to meet the challenge at hand. They are always going to innovate and find a way.”

The next big thing?

For Gellings, who grew up on the family farm in Wisconsin, daydreaming about the next big technology breakthrough for ag — something truly revolutionary along the lines of how smart spraying has impacted pesticide applications — gets him fired up. He says he can only imagine what his grandfather would say if he knew you could put a camera on a spray boom and only target the weeds as you drove 15 mph through the field.

“In 5 years, will there be a new technology like that, that revolutionizes the way we’re doing things and in a way that we never thought possible? That’s what’s exciting when I think about all the innovation that’s happening in agriculture,” he says. “We’re in this technology boom, and I can almost guarantee there will be another groundbreaking technology that don’t exist today that will come along and fundamentally change the way we farm.”

The updated study findings (the original study data was published back in 2020) were released in collaboration with the American Farm Bureau Federation, American Soybean Association, CropLife America and National Corn Growers Association. Kearney, a global management consulting firm, had a team of project management professionals and subject matter experts to assist AEM in executing the study update.

The full study is available now on AEM’s Insights page at www.aem.org/insights .

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New 2026 Balers and Hay Tools Launched By Case IH, John Deere, New Holland, And Vermeer

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 17:01:15 GMT

Case IH’s new RB6 series variable chamber round baler offers durability and less maintenance with triple seal bearings throughout the machine. This ensures contaminants stay out while lubricants stay in to maintain optimal operation.

The RB566 model includes several enhancement options:

(Matthew J. Grassi)

New double roller windguard increases compression and control for OSF pickups, allowing for increased capacity and ground speed.
The new Bale Weigh capability allows operators to monitor and record individual bale weight on an ongoing basis via in-cab monitoring. This capability weighs the bale in chamber without pausing the machine.
Pro 700 Plus display or Pro 1200 display compatibility.
FieldOps machine and telematics data via mobile and web apps have the ability to monitor individual bale data such as drop location, weight and moisture content.

“Another thing we’ve done is, on our pickup, we’ve went to a double roller windguard on the 566. Our customers who are bailing a lot of corn stalks, they’re dealing with some big windrows,” says Brian Williams, livestock product specialist, CNH Industrial. “And what this does is it pushes those windrows down and smashes them out and allows them to feed into the baler more fluidly so they can go faster.”

The RB6 series is manufactured in the U.S. in New Holland, Penn. , and order writing is open now. Orders signed this fall will begin shipping in March 2026.

John Deere intros V452M Round Baler with stepped-up automation features

(John Deere)

John Deere says its new V452M round baler provides enhanced productivity and precision ag tech integration for hay and forage operations.

The V452M headlines a newly updated lineup of VR and CR round baler models, introducing a new naming convention and advanced features purpose-built for heavy crop and silage conditions, while the current 1 Series round balers will continue to serve customer baling needs.

Expanding the versatility of John Deere’s round baler lineup, the VM, VR and CR lineup updates include variable-chamber and variable-wrapping combination models.

Key features of the V452M include:

Advanced Bale Chamber Technology: Three starting rolls and two belt drive rolls ensure consistent bale rotation.
Larger Bale Chamber: 4-by-5½ feet chamber width to maximize bale weight.
High-Density Silage Capability: Produces silage bales up to 11.7 pounds per cubic foot.

The full updated Model Year 2026 Deere baler lineup introduces several features to boost productivity (capabilities vary by model):

Industry-Leading Gate Cycle Time: As fast as three seconds for more bales per hour.
Moisture Sensors and Bale Scales: Seamlessly connect to the free John Deere Operations Center for near real-time bale documentation and yield insights.
G5 or G5e Monitor for in-cab adjustments and data-driven decisions.
High-Capacity Feeding System: A 7.2-foot-wide five-bar pickup handles heavy windrows with ease.
Baler Automation With New Unplug Assist automatically stops the tractor when the target bale size is reached and manages the gate cycle. When needed, Unplug Assist automatically stops the tractor and disengages the PTO when a plug is detected.

The VM, VR and CR balers will begin shipping in November 2025. For more information, contact your local John Deere dealer

New Holland rolls out Roll-Belt 1 Series Balers

(New Holland)

New for model year 2026, New Holland is introducing three updated Roll-Belt 1 Series models designed to work smarter, bale faster and ensure producers stay connected.

New Holland says feeding performance gets a boost with its Roll-Belt 451, 461 and 561 models. A newly designed single roller windguard now comes standard on all OSF (OverShot Feeder) pickup models. And a larger 8.4" roller — 60% larger in diameter than its predecessor — helps better compress the crop mat and improve feeding into the chamber.

For those baling larger windrows, a new dual roller windguard is available as an upgrade option on the 561 model. The front and rear rollers pivot independently, providing adaptive control in variable crop and ground conditions. Operators can also lock both rollers together when compressing loose or fluffy windrows.

“Each of these three models has a distinct fit. Take, for example, the Roll-Belt 561. In corn stalks, it truly shines,” says Alex Berwager, livestock and dairy business manager, New Holland. “We’re seeing a 16% improvement in feeding capacity thanks to the dual roller windguard, jumping from 43 to 50 tons per hour. That means less plugging from the controlled crop flow and greater productivity to tackle more when your time is short.”

Vermeer launches fleet of new baler and hay tools for 2026

(Vermeer)

Vermeer’s new model year 2026 baler and hay tool launch is led by the all-new ZR-2200 self-propelled baler.

The launch fleet also includes:

604 S series balers
605S Rancher baler
ZR-2200 self-propelled baler with the Z604S bale chamber
3 new models of carted wheel rakes.

“We’ve taken feedback from dealers and hay producers to build equipment that’s intuitive, durable and designed to deliver results,” said Shane Rourke, managing director of forage, Vermeer.

604S Premium Baler

(Vermeer)

The new 604 S series balers come in three models: Rancher, Signature and Premium (shown above).

Vermeer says the machines are built to help producers get more 6’x4' (1.8-m by 1.2-m) bales put up in a day.

The 604S Rancher is a reliable, straightforward option for value-focused producers who want durable components and convenient operation.
The 604S Signature features enhanced driveline capacity and rugged components, ideal for high-volume operations.
The 604S Premium pulls out all the stops with smart automation, comfort-focused features and productivity tools that help operators work faster, smarter and with less effort.

All three models share common components — including the camless wide pickup with a hydraulic pickup lift, a mechanical netwrap system and the Atlas Pro control system with in-cab density adjustments.

ZR-4S self-propelled baler.

(Vermeer)

Since the launch of the ZR5-1200 self-propelled baler in 2017, producers have consistently asked for a 4' (1.2-m) model that delivers the same level of automation, comfort and productivity.

Vermeer says it is answering that request with the new ZR-2200 self-propelled baler with the Z604S bale chamber (ZR-4S). The ZR-4S (pictured above) features zero-turn maneuverability, integrated automation and a premium cab packed with operator-focused features.

From auto tie and eject to real-time bale data and TempSense bearing temperature monitoring, the ZR-4S self-propelled baler is built to keep operators productive, informed and comfortable.

VRC Carted wheel rake

(Vermeer)

Three new carted wheel rakes — the VRC820, VRC1022 and VRC1224 — offer robust construction, updated hydraulics, and simple adjustments to help producers get the most out of every pass.

With raking widths ranging from 20' (6 m) to 24' (7.3 m), these rakes are designed for longevity and ease of use for operators of all sizes.

Full availability on these new hay tools is expected in Spring 2026.

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Farm Drone News: AgEagle Multispectral Sensor, GPS Satellite Launched and Rantizo Spins Off Software

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 18:08:05 GMT

AgEagle Aerial Systems Unveils New RedEdge-P Green Camera

(AgEagle Aerial Systems)

AgEagle Aerial Systems announces the launch of its new RedEdge-P Green, a multispectral camera designed to enable precision agriculture from planting to harvest.

AgEagle says farmers that use the new sensor payload can achieve higher yields through quicker interventions both early on and late in the crop cycle. Operators can reduce fertilizer and irrigation inputs and engage in smart harvesting techniques using optimized indices and targeted indices like the Plant Senescence Reflectance Index (PSRI).

Available as a standalone camera or in paired configurations with the original RedEdge-P and the RedEdge-P Blue, users can leverage up to 15 noise-resistant, data-rich spectral bands essential for large-area precision agriculture.

The RedEdge-P Green camera is NDAA-compliant and integrates with multiple drone platforms. Each camera kit includes a Calibrated Reflectance Panel (CRP) and a Downwelling Light Sensor (DLS2) for radiometric calibration.

Production of the RedEdge-P Green camera is underway, and the first units are expected to ship this week. For more information about the RedEdge-P Green visit ageagle.com.

Dutch Startup Launches Largest GPS Network for Drones, Tractors

(Lindsey Pound, iStock)

FreshMiners, a Netherlands-based IOT firm, launched a GPS service that enables accurate positioning for agriculture, construction and drone navigation, according to AgriMarketing.com.

AgriMarketing.com writes that the Dutch company is launching a service for extra-accurate GPS. It is intended for drone pilots, farmers and others. With this new technology, users can correct their GPS positions down to the centimeter. Real-time correction signals are sent to the user’s GPS receiver via a global network of base stations. This correction is essential for applications in agriculture, land surveying and drone navigation, among other things.

A subscription gives users access to the GEODNET network, which, with more than 19,000 base stations in over 140 countries, is now reportedly the largest RTK network in the world.

Read more at AgriMarketing.com.

Missouri Doctoral Student Says Drones Are Fine Tool for Crop Scouting

(Photo by Abbie Lankitus)

Researchers at the University of Missouri have discovered a mix of drones and AI can help farmers measure the health of their corn more efficiently.

Instead of relying on handheld devices, which are slow and impractical for larger fields, the researchers surveyed corn fields in mid-Missouri using drones equipped with special cameras to capture images and data.

After combining the drone images with soil data, the Mizzou researchers used a type of AI known as machine learning to quickly predict the chlorophyll content in the corn leaves of the entire field with great accuracy.

The study was led by Fengkai Tian (pictured above), a Mizzou doctoral student who works in the lab of Jianfeng Zhou, an associate professor in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

Read more from the University of Missouri here.

Rantizo Spin-Off American Autonomy Inc. Says It Can Close the Spray Drone Data Loop

Rantizo is now connected with the John Deere Operations Center through John Deere API services.

(Rantizo)

Ground rig as-applied data has been around for decades, and it comes in handy when you’re tabulating your end of year scorecard to find out which treatments boosted yields and where a spray might have fallen short.

Yet even though spray drones treated over 10 million crop acres in 2024 alone, there’s still a gap that exists in capturing that data and integrating it into your farm management software.

Former Rantizo CEO Mariah Scott, who is now the CEO of a spinoff operation dubbed American Autonomy Inc., says her new outfit’s AcreConnect platform can help close that gap with API connections into John Deere’s Operations Center and more major FMIS platforms.

“We talk to farmers about getting that complete view of your field management, by closing the loop so you understand what’s effective or what’s not,” Scott says. “Most of the farmers we talk to use spray drones and a ground sprayer, and that (as-applied) data from the sprayer goes right into their FMIS account, but with the spray drone it doesn’t always work like that.”

The deal to divest the spray drone operations side of the business was quietly announced on Aug. 1. The Rantizo name, the startup is a pioneering spray drone service provider, still lives on, but now there’s a clean break between the spraying operations and the software on the back end that enables it.

Learn more about the Rantizo-American Autonomy Spinoff over at PRNewswire.

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Tech News: Bonsai Robotics Adds Farm-ng, Case IH Creates AI-Powered Parts Tool, Lindsey Launches TowerWatch

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 13:32:44 GMT

Bonsai Robotics Acquires Electric Robot Startup Farm-ng

Bonsai Robotics has acquired Farm-ng, a startup offering modular electric robots for farm management.

Bonsai says the strategic combination brings together two agtech companies with shared visions on how to deliver powerful artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that tackle the labor, cost and efficiency challenges specialty crop growers face today.

The integration of Bonsai’s autonomous AI technology with Farm-ng’s customizable robotic platform enables AI-first machines that Bonsai says could transform crop management.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Existing shareholders of both companies will retain ownership stakes in the newly combined entity, Bonsai Robotics.

Learn more about the deal from The Packer’s Christina Herrick here.

Case IH Debuts AI-powered Visual Search Tool for Equipment Parts

(Case IH)

Case IH has announced its newest tech innovation, Visual Search Tool, a digital, AI-powered image recognition app the company says can help farmers reduce downtime. The Visual Search Tool allows operators and dealers to search for equipment parts without part numbers via a photo taken through the app.

Operators out in the field may not always have parts numbers handy, and this new tool removes the guesswork. The app takes the photo uploaded by a customer or dealer and matches it to the part. This new innovation can take away the stress of finding a part number and helps operators get back in the field as quickly as possible.

Case IH says this is the latest example of how it is not only using AI to streamline operations and the way it develops products but also to support its dealers and customers. In addition to the Visual Search Tool, CNH launched AI tech assistant this winter that helps dealer technicians better and more quickly support customers.

For more information, contact your local Case IH dealer.

Lindsay Releases TowerWatch Alignment Monitoring System

(Lindsay Corp.)

Lindsay Corp. is adding TowerWatch, a tower alignment monitor that can pinpoint irrigation tower faults faster, to the company’s SmartPivot Solutions tech suite.

The sensor-based monitoring system is available on new Zimmatic pivots and also available aftermarket for most irrigation pivots in North America. Lindsay says growers using TowerWatch can potentially reduce troubleshooting time by 75% through alerts from FieldNET Premier.

Lindsay says TowerWatch also allows growers to save on water and energy costs. When a tower fault occurs, growers using Lindsay’s SmartPivot Solutions can expect to:

Get an instant notification from the FieldNET app.
Immediately identify the location of the fault.
Remotely control water application to lower the risk of crop stress.
Arrive at the right tower quicker to inspect the issue, reducing time spent walking.
Make fewer trips to the field, saving time and money.

For more on Lindsay’s solutions for farmers worldwide, talk to your local Lindsay dealer or visit Lindsay.com/towerwatch.

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Meet The Forge: Kelly Hills Unmanned Puts New Spin on Ag Tech Field Testing

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 11:53:55 GMT

Over the weekend, Kelly Hills Unmanned, a company that says it is dedicated to accelerating multimodal technologies in agriculture and autonomy, announced the launch of The Forge.

It’s being described as a deployment-centered program designed to meld best-in-class ag technologies into new tools that farmers, ranchers and service providers can trust and use for decades to come, according to a press release from the group.

The Forge’s inaugural cohort hopes to bring together a “powerhouse group” of innovators and operators from across the ag technology landscape into a coordinated, systems approach to help growers identify and overcome agronomic issues before they become yield robbers.

The cohort members, or pillars, are:

Precision AI: Developers of real-time drone-based precision spraying systems that reduce chemical inputs and deliver hyper-targeted agronomic action.
Pyka: Builders of autonomous electric aircraft designed for aerial applications, logistics and mission-critical crop operations.
ScanIt Technologies: Experts in using early detection of airborne pathogens to maximize yields and minimize costs.
Heinen Brothers Agra Services: One of the nation’s largest aerial applicators and ag services companies, offering deployment scale and deep field expertise.
Yamaha Precision Agriculture: Pioneers of robotic and aerial technology for small scale, high-efficiency farming.
Drop Flight: Providers of droplet characterization and aircraft calibration tools to optimize spray accuracy and compliance in real-world operations.
Taranis: Global leaders in ultra-high-resolution aerial scouting, delivering precise field-level insights to boost agronomic decision-making.

For more information, head to www.kellyhills.us/the-forge .

Farm Journal reached out to Lukas Koch to pick his brain about this new, novel entrant to the ag tech ecosystem. We first met Koch last year during the Kelly Hills Unmanned summer field day near Seneca, Kan., where his group unveiled the Pyka Pelican Spray drone — at the time the largest, highest-capacity ag spray drone on the market (280-liter capacity). This year Kelly Hills is integrating the Pelican 2 (300-liter capacity, up to 222 acres per hour at 60-foot swath rate) into its aerial application arsenal.

Farm Journal: Would you call this an ag tech incubator or accelerator type of program, and if not, what’s makes The Forge different?

Lukas Koch (LK): “(The Forge) is neither of those, because we’re not taking a cash influx to create an R&D program. What we’re doing is creating new tools with existing technology — if they’re part of plug and play that’s fine, but we don’t care about that. We want to know if the tech has merit and does it fit on the acre, but maybe something with it is not fully there just yet? So, what are we supposed to do with it then? You have a technology and, for example, it can take high-res pictures and identify areas of your fields that need attention, but today the most likely options are using a ground rig or hiring an airplane to manage that in a meaningful way. For that example, we think there’s an opportunity to do that with a small spray drone, but then again the logistics are tough; you have to come back and land and swap out a battery or refill the tank so often. We’re going to take a bunch of existing technologies that already exist, ask them to change nothing and put them to the test — and we’ll push the bounds of what they can do, to make these all work together in a system.”

FJ: How will this all kind of come together and take shape this summer as the program rolls out?

LK: “We have a few drone companies (in the cohort), and there’s a droplet analysis program involved — I thought that was an important piece in analyzing the spray coverage we get. Right now, we have the in-field sensors out in the field to help us ground truth the data we get from overhead. And then the remote sensing piece gives us situational awareness; it tells us where we should be focusing our efforts. And overall, I think, OK, that’s great, but now you still have to make a treatment with either a ground rig or hire an airplane.

(www.KellyHills.us)

“But with our FAA test range (pictured above) that we were approved for last summer within Kelly Hills, now we can autonomously fly to those spots with a drone, either in line of sight or Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS), and we can make those treatments autonomously. This year, the tool we’re focusing on is true spot spraying BVLOS in corn and soybeans, and then next year hopefully we can make more tools or take that technology that already exists and make it into a tool for a grower, who can sign up for this subscription and buy one of these drones, and now I have a full encompassing suite of tools and I can know for sure what works and what does not work.”

FJ: How can farmers in Kansas learn more and possibly sign up to work with you guys?

LK: “There’s really two ways right now. For anything specific they might want to do, maybe there are some projects they are thinking about, go ahead and ping us on the website , and we’ll get back to you. And the other way is, once we’re done with a set tool or we wrap up our summer series of projects, we plan to make the results and findings available online, kind of like Beck’s Hybrids does with its farm applied research studies. We want people to see what we’re doing and to reach out with their ideas on how we can make better tools inside of The Forge and showcase some of these technologies together in one new product, and growers are very interested in this and would love to understand if they can package these technologies together and make an ROI.”

FJ: You already have this inaugural cohort in place, but are you already thinking about what’s next?

LK: “I have a couple companies that I need to further engage with now that they can see what The Forge is all about. A couple of those are involved in year-over-year (data) modeling technology that can say, OK, help me start to determine this is my pattern, and this is what I did last year; now can you tell me what to do next year and how to create more ROI? And then I think soil is a huge key right now, too. I don’t have any any soil type products in there, and soil sampling is great, but there are some neat companies that are focusing on soil-sensing technology that I think would be interesting to package in there, too. You know, in due time I think we’ll get there.”

Koch says the plan is to unveil many of the insights and results from The Forge at this summer’s Kelly Hills Unmanned Field Day. That event is set for Aug. 19, and you can get registered for it here.

And, just for fun, here’s a video breakdown of the Pyka Pelican 2:

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John Deere-Sentera Tie Up: Here’s What We Know So Far

Fri, 23 May 2025 21:07:32 GMT

John Deere has announced its acquisition of Minnesota-based aerial optics innovator Sentera. Although specific details are few and far between this early in the process, here’s what we know so far:

The two companies have a long history. John Deere was the first enterprise customer Sentera signed onto its system over a decade ago, and the two companies have had an API link in place between Sentera’s drone management software and John Deere’s Operations Center since 2016.
Financial details are not being disclosed. We do know the deal is not subject to any further regulatory or shareholder approvals.
In a similar fashion to the Blue River Technologies and Bear Flag Robotics acquisitions, Sentera will maintain its independence as a free-standing business unit. Once fully integrated into the Deere family, Sentera will operate under the John Deere Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) framework. Sentera leadership will remain at its St. Paul, Minn., headquarters.
For the time being, no major changes are planned for either company as we head into the heart of the summer crop scouting and spraying season. The two companies anticipate having more details to share about the nuts and bolts of the acquisition this fall.
The two groups are a natural fit. Sentera is aggressively marketing its SmartScripts drone weed mapping program, and the technology is complimentary to John Deere’s Operations Center and its See & Spray and ExactApply application technologies. One driving force behind this deal, Farm Journal is told, is Deere’s motivation to integrate more real-time agronomic data into its Operations Center platform, and Sentera’s aerial data capture capabilities can help make that happen.

(John Deere)

A deal to lift both boats. John Deere has built up a deep bench of artificial intelligence, machine learning and autonomous technology expertise within ISG, and Sentera has a long track record of aerial sensing and camera payload innovation. Considering how many cameras and sensors are included from the factory on new John Deere machines and within its Precision Upgrades retrofit kits, there should be a healthy cross pollination of sensor and camera innovation between Urbandale, Iowa, (where ISG is based) and St. Paul, Minn.
Sentera can help make See & Spray even better. SmartScripts uses drone-based imaging to scan a field and build a weed pressure map which is then loaded onto the sprayer’s in-cab computer. Now the sprayer operator can see exactly where weeds are in the field and focus their spraying efforts there first. There’s also a logistical and planning aspect to SmartScripts: by knowing exactly how many weeds are present in the field, and even what type of weeds are there, an adept operator can have the right active ingredients premixed and the exact amount needed loaded into the tank or staged nearby in a tender truck to keep that sprayer running all day long.

“Farming is becoming a very sensor and data-centric business, and in our opinion, there isn’t anyone doing it at broad scale today better than John Deere,” says Eric Taipale, chief technology officer, Sentera. “The way we can bring these data-driven insights and improve grower outcomes — it’s just what we’ve always been about. It’s what John Deere is all about. There’s such a great mesh between the two cultures, the objectives and the mission of the two organizations.”

Joseph Liefer, global technology marketing lead at John Deere, adds, “We’re excited about how this complements our existing portfolio with See & Spray, and then not just that (product). Now a farmer with an individual nozzle-controlled sprayer from any manufacturer can also leverage this technology. A drone can fly their field, generate a weed map, turn it into a prescription in Operations Center and the machine can go execute the plan. From an ag retailer standpoint, that might have a mixed fleet, and this gives them more tools in the toolbox to do targeted application for growers and help them save on herbicide. We view this deal as complementary to our overall tech strategy.”

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John Deere Challenge: Watch a New York Tech Journalist Farm 20 Acres of Corn for $20 Profit

Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:18:56 GMT

You might recall this viral stunt from when it was announced last spring: John Deere and tech influencer David Cogen (@TheUnlockr) joined forces to set the New York-based journalist up as a row crop farmer for an entire growing season. Using 20 acres of prime Iowa farmland, Cogen’s mission was to find out if he could accomplish what farmers must achieve to put food on America’s dinner tables: turn planted crops into cold, hard cash.

Unlike most farmers, though, Cogen was basically given every cheat code in the game: He had guidance from John Deere experts throughout the crop journey, all of the latest John Deere equipment with all the tech bells-and-whistles any farmer could dream for —not to mention a blank check for seed, crop inputs, fuel and labor.

Cogen began by ordering up soil tests and custom fertilizer applications. Then he flew back to Iowa to complete the spring tillage pass and seed the field. Next came another trip to spray weeds post-emergence with Deere’s See & Spray smart application system before returning in the fall to harvest the finished grain and haul it down to the local ethanol processing plant.

Along the way Cogen learned a handful of lessons any seasoned farmer already knows all too well:

The weather never seems to do what you want it to do, when you want it to do it. That’s farming.
You have to eradicate weeds or they will rob your yields and destroy your profits.
Variation is the enemy, it’s all about consistent production and harvesting at the precise moisture level and timing.
A dry late-summer and early-fall is a factor you can’t control but it can cost you real dollars on your final yield. The corn will dry down too fast in the field if you don’t get it off on time, so in this case, water is truly money when it comes to corn and soybean farming.

In the end, Cogen’s field averaged 209 bushels per acre and produced just over 3,000 total bushels of corn, which equates to over 200,000 lb.

His total expenses for the year (land costs, seed, fertilizer and “other”) totaled $16,456, while his total revenues for the 19.24 total acres of corn harvested was $16,478.

Don’t adjust your monitor. Yes, you read that right.

The New York tech editor farmed all year long and only brought home $22 in total profit. It just goes to show, turning a profit on only 20 acres is incredibly hard to do. Small acre farmers deserve just as much respect as the big boys.

“Honestly, I hope that like myself, that this has opened your eyes into what it actually takes to farm,” Cogen says at the end of the video. “Just all of the work that goes into it and you can have a new appreciation for farming and for farmers.

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Drone and Smart Sprayer Combo Targets, Brings The Boom Down On Weeds

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 13:01:00 GMT

Deploying camera drones and sprayers outfitted with the latest application technology onboard in a systems approach could end up being a key management strategy in helping farmers eradicate weeds.

That’s exactly what Sentera is hoping to achieve with its SmartScripts Weeds program (formerly Aerial WeedScout), which is heading into year two of commercial trials. The tech-enabled crop protection workflow combines drone scouting flights, AI-based image processing, and selective spraying technologies to help farmers “get to the answers faster” in their spray programs.

Here’s how it works: A farmer or agronomist requests early-season drone scans. A certified drone pilot then flies the fields using a drone equipped with Sentera’s specialized payload, featuring a 130MP camera array and high-precision geolocation tools. This imaging system, combined with AI-powered analysis in Sentera’s FieldAgent platform, bypasses the slow, traditional workflows of image stitching and data processing— Sentera says it delivers insights faster and more efficiently.

The product that comes out is a georeferenced, digital weed map and prescription that identifies which weeds are present in your fields (today the system can ID 5 weed species and grasses at ¼ of an inch in size), how tall those weeds are, and GPS coordinates for where the weed pressure is greatest. The system delivers a targeted spray prescription (usually within 24 hours of the flight) based on the weed types present.

The digital weed map is then uploaded into a sprayer’s in-cab computer as a shape file. Now the sprayer knows where it needs to start spraying for weeds and putting on higher rates. The system recommends different application rates based on weed height.

“It’s a ‘know-before-you-go’ approach to weed management,” says Joe Walsh, chief growth officer, Sentera. “Now the farmer can know exactly which fields to go to first and prioritize for spraying, and the retailer will know how much herbicide the farmer’s going to need and where to send it.”

Last summer, Sentera ran field trials on 13,000 soybean acres throughout the Midwest. Overall, it saw an average of 70% in savings on post emergence weed management programs. But 13,000 acres is not a significant sample size, so this summer the company is working with farmers to use the system across more production acres, including in corn fields.

While many in ag have criticized drone technology for lacking a practical application within row crop farming, Sentera founder and CTO Eric Taipale says this new workflow is potentially the technologies’ perfect fit.

“A drone is a great way to know more, to know faster and to know completely what is going on in a field, it’s a great immediate data tool,” he says.

While it’s still too early to know what the final, commercialized version will look like, Taipale did share a few details from his perspective:

The drones Sentera will use for the program will feature Sentera’s 130-megapixel, multispectral sensing payload.
The workflow is showing promise in combination with ground-rig selective spraying technologies like John Deere’s See & Spray and CNH’s recently announced IntelliSense platform, although the sprayer doesn’t require those technologies to use the workflow. It does need to have section or nozzle control.
Pricing is still being worked out, but it looks like the program will charge a per-acre fee that will land somewhere in the ballpark of $6 to $9 per acre. Taipale says this TBD pricing proposal came about as the result of direct farmer feedback from last year’s trials.

“The days of just spraying glyphosate across an entire field and it takes care of all the weeds are unfortunately over,” Taipale says. “We’re really excited about SmartScripts and using drones and AI to help farmers get to the answer faster. Nobody likes weeds and we certainly don’t either.”

Adds Walsh: “Farmers are who we must provide value to, so the primary market for this will be the Corn Belt. When we look at the market overall, 400 million acres across the U.S. had herbicide applied over them last year. That’s a lot of room for opportunity and to help farmers save some money on their crop protection program.”

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Smart Harvest: How One Farmer Is Hitting Harvest Windows, Helping Others With Grain Cart Tech

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 19:01:00 GMT

For a guy that self-identifies as “100% John Deere” Nebraska farmer Geoffrey Ruth might just go a bit color blind when it comes to one of farming’s newest automation technologies. That’s because he is pretty darn pumped up about the potential of OutRun, PTx Trimble’s driverless grain cart retrofit kit.

Ruth farms 3,300 acres of corn and soybeans in the silty and sandy riverbed soils of the Platte River Valley – and around 60% of his acres are under pivot.

His harvest crew, which consists of himself in the combine seat, his father in the semi hauler, and usually a retired truck driver in the grain cart, has put the automation tech through its paces as on-farm beta testers. What they’ve found: the technology helps him hit his harvest window and also frees his crew up to help many of his elderly neighbors that couldn’t get their crop off this fall.

When it comes to technology adoption, Ruth says his operation is probably “just slightly ahead of the curve”. He has already tried out spray drones for in-season fungicide on corn, and over the years he’s done a ton of data collection and field mapping.

“Everything that we do on the farm, we collect and analyze the data,” he adds.

But so far, the practicality and ease-of-use of driverless grain cart automation has stood tall across his acreage. In fact, Ruth is so all-in on the technology that he is keeping it snug tight to his farmer vest: today he is renting out space in his machine shop to the PTx Trimble product engineers working on getting the system red carpet ready for its full release.

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“We’re fairly flat so the technology works really well here,” Ruth says, noting one of his hired hands stayed in the tractor cab in case the system malfunctioned. “We’re usually pretty short on labor at harvest time, so we’re looking to purchase one outright and take that operator and throw them in a semi to haul grain.”

What Makes It Work For Him
Ruth likes being able to direct the grain cart from the combine, sending it off to a predetermined unload zone when it’s full or holding it in place and having it wait for his next command. The system is also smart, so it knows where it’s already cut corn and will use that area as a path instead of mowing over crops that haven’t been harvested yet. It’s similar to how a drone already knows the safe path home when the pilot hits return to home on the controller.

The system also allows him to set how full he wants to fill each cart, and it will autonomously sense grain levels and bump the cart forward or backwards to evenly fill it. He estimates that feature alone lets him fill his grain carts over 5% more than he was able to without it. Since Ruth always runs two grain carts per combine during corn harvest, that translates to a 10% bump in overall efficiency.

But what really stands out about the system, he says, is how easy it is to learn and how quickly he can get a new operator up and running.

“When we first got it on the farm two years ago, they handed me an iPad and gave me less than five minutes of training, and I was off and running with it,” he says. “If you know how to do anything on a smart phone you can use it.”

Ruth still has two teenage kids in school sports, so the system came in clutch this fall when he needed to knock off early and head over to the high school gym for his daughter’s volleyball game. While he cheered on his daughter, the guys were able to keep harvesting.

“Guys that don’t have the same access to labor that I have, I can see this being a huge benefit,” Ruth says. “And it just makes the job more attractive. These guys are retired, so they don’t want to put in 12-hour days seven days a week for two months (during harvest). This thing doesn’t care how long it runs, or if it missed lunch or didn’t get a bathroom break. And it doesn’t matter if the sun is shining or its pitch black outside, this thing will run.”

Other benefits of driverless grain cart technology, which is available (CNH Industrial also has a grain cart automation system called Raven Cart Automation) on John Deere 8R or 8000R tractors and select Fendt models in 2026, that Geoffrey likes include:

Installation only took 6 hours on his tractor, and PTx Trimble techs have chipped away at installation times as they’ve obtained more experience with the system.
Ruth says the perception system has proven adept at seeing everything in its 360-degrees of vision. It combines LiDAR, traditional radar, thermal, and standard RGB sensing to constantly scan its surroundings in real-time.
OutRun’s Perception Vision System (a network of cameras, sensors and CPU processing units that see, think, and command the tractor) is being expanded to tillage tools, dry fertilizer spreaders, and other implements. The more year-round use a farmer can get, the quicker the return-on-investment, Ruth says.
Integrations, like the API with John Deere’s Operations Center, makes pulling in field boundaries quick and easy, Ruth says.

PTx Trimble’s OutRun kit was recently awarded with a 2025 Davidson Prize at Commodity Classic 2025 in Denver, Colorado. The award recognizes breakthrough innovations in agricultural engineering that improve efficiency, sustainability and productivity.

You can learn more about PTx Trimble’s OutRun system at www.OutRunAg.com

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Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:59:00 GMT

Yamaha is a Japanese legacy automotive and motor sports giant known the world over, but many aren’t aware that the company also has a long and storied history in ag tech.

Yamaha’s R-Max gas-powered spray helicopter launched in Japan in the 1990s, making it one of the first unmanned aerial application vehicles on the market for applying crop protection products to growing crops. FAZER-R was its next iteration of spray drones, and the company says it has over 2,800 units of both R-MAX and FAZER remote controlled spray helicopters deployed today with farmers around the world.

In late January, the manufacturer announced the launch of Yamaha Agriculture , a new U.S.-based company that will focus on delivering autonomous equipment and AI-powered digital solutions. The company came together as a single business unit as a result of strategic acquisitions of robotics and AI focused startups Robotics Plus and The Yield.

We recently connected with Nolan Paul, who was named CEO of the relatively-new ag tech division, to learn more about the venture as it gets a footing established on the West Coast. Previously Paul was Head of R&D Strategy and Emerging Technology for Driscoll’s, the global market leader in production of fresh berries.

Farm Journal (FJ): How long of a timeline do you anticipate until commercialized robotics solutions are available for growers to purchase?

Nolan Paul (NP): Robotics Plus’ Prospr vehicles are already deployed with customers and distributors in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand.

FJ: What type of specific use cases do you envision bringing to market that will leverage advanced data analytics and AI?

NP: A multitude of use cases with time to market based on the degree of technical difficulty. We already offer weather-driven predictions to customers in the form of yield forecasts and harvest and spray timing. The next set of use cases will be variable rate spray applications based on real-time sensing on the vehicle (e.g., spray volumes based on canopy density).

(Yamaha Agriculture)

FJ: How do you envision Yamaha’s robotic solutions being marketed/sold to growers?

NP: Robotics Plus already has distributor partners in the U.S. and Australia/New Zealand. However, it’s important for Yamaha to maintain direct relationships with growers, especially our larger customers, to optimize customer success and develop our product roadmap. Regarding our monetization approach, we believe growers should purchase our hardware solutions the same way they prefer to purchase the rest of their machinery. Some prefer to buy outright. Others prefer a financing or lease option. We remain open to alternative monetization options if it makes life easier for the grower.

FJ: Where will the new division Yamaha Agriculture be based? How many employees will make up the division?

NP: Yamaha Agriculture is a U.S.-incorporated business with subsidiaries in Australia and New Zealand. Our headquarters is in the Bay Area as it provides easy access to Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland. We also have local offices in Napa, Calif., and Wenatchee, Wash., along with team members based up and down the West Coast. Currently, Yamaha Agriculture has approximately 175 employees.

FJ: Ag technologies that solve a specific problem for the farmer seem to be the solutions that are adopted by American farmers. Are there any specific issues that your technology will be able to solve for growers?

NP: Currently spraying and weed control with our Prospr vehicle. However, it’s a modular platform, so the product roadmap includes several implements such as mowing and under-row cultivation. Our goal isn’t to develop implements from scratch. We are partnering with implement companies to integrate their tools on Prospr.

Separately, we also offer yield predictions and crop recommendations through our acquisition of The Yield. These two capabilities lay the foundation for increased closed-loop opportunities (actionable insights) with a focus on reducing block-level variability.

FJ: Do you have any concerns with the new U.S. administration’s trade policies considering Yamaha Agriculture is targeting the U.S. as a primary market for your technology?

NP: Yamaha sells a lot of products in the United States, ranging from motorcycles to outboard motors, ATVs and golf cars. As a result, we will take guidance from our broader organization and implement a strategy that is most effective for Yamaha Agriculture and our customers.

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New Holland Joins The Smart Sprayer Revolution With IntelliSense Automation

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 14:39:04 GMT

New Holland is releasing its own spin on selective spraying technology, IntelliSense Sprayer Automation.

The manufacturer claims it is the most comprehensive application automation solution on the market. The technology will hit the market first as a factory offering for new Model Year 2026 Guardian series front boom sprayers.

The technology is accessible with no annual subscription requirements or per-acre fees.

New Holland says the system can be used on a wide spectrum of crops — from corn, soybeans and cotton to pulse crops and small grains like wheat and canola — and is capable of a wide array of full-season application functions, including herbicide, fungicide, plant growth regulator, nitrogen and harvest aid.

“Operators and farmers are going to be able to optimize the return on their inputs and increase productivity both in terms of acres covered and resulting crop uniformity and yield. IntelliSense Sprayer Automation is in a class of its own as the most versatile sense and act spray technology available,” says Curtis Hillen, cash crop segment lead, New Holland North America.

What Makes It Work?
Just like the smart spraying platform released this week by its CNH Industrial sister brand Case IH, New Holland’s IntelliSense Sprayer Automation uses a single cab-mounted, front-facing SenseApply Camera unit.

The SenseApply camera unit is a multi-spectral vision system that enables IntelliSense Sprayer Automation to continuously scan upcoming field conditions across the full width of the boom from a high vantage point atop the cab.

(Robb Long Photography/New Holland)

The SenseApply camera unit is a multi-spectral vision system that enables IntelliSense Sprayer Automation to continuously scan upcoming field conditions (50 feet out in front of the sprayer) across the full width of the boom (up to 140 feet in width) from a high vantage point atop the cab.

Unique Sprayer Functions
The leading aspect of the new IntelliSense Sprayer Automation is its Selective Spray function. It offers operators the choice of two application types to enhance herbicide applications: Spot Spraying and Base + Boost.

Spot Spraying utilizes green-on-brown functionality and operates by detecting weeds smaller in stature (less than two inches in height) and activates nozzles on the boom that correspond to the location of the detected weed.

Where an operator is applying a broadcast herbicide over a field, Base + Boost mode applies a uniform base rate across the entire coverage width and activates a localized boost rate from nozzles where weeds are detected. When the SenseApply camera identifies a weed, IntelliSense Sprayer Automation boosts the maximum application rate for that single weed within the herbicide’s prescription rate range.

Beyond Selective Spray, IntelliSense Sprayer Automation bolsters its capabilities with a range of full-season live variable rate application functions that further elevate a sprayer’s productivity, utility and overall operating ROI. Functions include nitrogen variable rate application (VRA), plant growth regulator VRA, fungicide VRA, harvest aid VRA and burndown VRA. These functions operate by automatically adjusting the amount of each input applied (nitrogen, PGR, fungicide, harvest aid and burndown) based on plant health levels.

To further in-field productivity, a Guardian front boom sprayer actively engaging one of the VRA functions can operate at speeds up to 25 mph. If Selective Spray is in active use, the sprayer can run at speeds up to 19 mph. This is a speed range that ensures operators can maintain a high level of in-field performance and quality of application, New Holland says.

Currently, IntelliSense Sprayer Automation can be used on a variety of crops, including corn, soybeans, wheat, barley, canola, cotton, small grains, edible beans and other legumes.

IntelliSense Sprayer Automation will be available factory-fit on Model Year 2026 Guardian series front boom sprayers — the SP310F, SP370F and SP410F. New Holland representatives also confirmed the technology will be available as a retrofit option on Model Year 2023 and up Guardian sprayers in the near future.

For more information, head over to NewHolland.com .

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Tech On the Farm: McArthur Ag Ventures Flips The Script On Traditional VRA

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:05:00 GMT

McArthur Ag Ventures (MAV) is a 112-year-old, fourth-generation operation that fans out across 18,000 acres of western Canadian prairie land. The soil is productive yet diverse in terms of typography, and technology is one tool that helps Brennan McArthur level the playing field.

“A new machine is a million bucks now,” he says. “Farmland is soon to be a million bucks. It’s not like 10 years ago where you just needed to grow a crop, and you knew you could pay the bills. There’s still money to be made, and it’s still a rewarding line of work, but you really need to be on the ball.”

MAV has an extensive smart farming program that incorporates annual GPS-based soil sampling to inform variable-rate nutrient applications, drone-based scouting and machine and in-field agronomy data management.

Everything begins, though, with managing the soil. Five years ago, the farm switched from an in-house soil sampling and variable-rate program to using Croptimistic Technologies’ Soil, Water and Topography (SWAT) maps.

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(Photos Courtesy of McArthurAg.com, Croptimistic Technology Inc.)

Every spring, the Croptimistic team runs its sensors across McArthur’s acreage. The soil data is then crunched and extrapolated onto 3D, multicolored maps to notate elevation, water-holding capacity and other soil metrics. The maps are loaded onto the operation’s fertilizer spreading tractors that vary the rate at which nutrients are applied. The high-yielding zones get a bit more to push yields, while areas that aren’t as productive get a bit less.

“I do believe since we’ve adopted a lot of these practices, such as SWAT, minimum tillage and direct seeding, our soil health has improved and continues to improve all the time and allowed us to grow more bushels,” he adds.

Data-based Decisions

When McArthur hears the term “smart farming” he thinks about making decisions based on the data that flows with every pass across a field.

“The more we grow and the more progressive we get with our consultants and our teams, the more I realize there are lots of smart farms out there today, but at the same time, there’s still not enough,” he explains. “You really need to know your cost of production and your machinery metrics. And you need to utilize technology to grow the best crops you can with what you have. To me, that’s smart farming.”

3 key takeaways from our conversation with McArthur:

Importance of Data-Driven Farming. Using technology and data in all aspects of farming practices is important to maintain profitability in today’s volatile ag markets. McArthur Ag Ventures relies on GPS soil sampling and SWAT maps to help them find variability in soil conditions, which in turn allows the agronomists on staff optimize their inputs and incrementally improve yields without added input costs.
Sustainability as a Standard Practice. Brennan McArthur feels sustainability should be standard practice among progressive farmers, rather than just a marketing program focus. Modern farming operations are implementing sustainable practices without needing to promote them heavily.
Adoption of Advanced Technologies. Farmers must adopt advanced practices like variable rate applications and analyzing machinery metrics with AI to remain competitive. As farming becomes more business-oriented, understanding costs and how to find new efficiencies is crucial for success.

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John Deere Details Model Year 2026 Updates, New Machine Capabilities and Technology Features

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 16:47:58 GMT

John Deere announces a suite of equipment and technology upgrades and new features across its portfolio of machines. Some of the updates are exclusive to model year 2026 machines, and some are available as retrofit options or upgrades for new and/or older John Deere machines.

Next Generation Perception System For Autonomous Tillage
John Deere is releasing its autonomy Precision Upgrades kit for select tractor models that brings autonomy to tillage work. The system is available as a Precision Upgrades kit for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors and model year 2020.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors. Select model year 2025 John Deere tractors are autonomy ready from the factory.

RELATED: John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

To add autonomy to the tillage tool, retrofit kits are available for 2017 and newer John Deere tillage implements with additional lighting and the StarFire receiver mast and harnessing. The autonomy ready solutions are factory installed in base models for select MY25 tillage tools.

Combine Improvements
For model year 2026, the additions include a new three-piece CAM hinge draper reel with dense pack fingers and a new CF 18 30 corn head, which John Deere says is the industry’s first folding corn head with 18" rows and 30" spacing.

John Deere is also announcing several enhancements to its model year 2026 combines:

The Harvest Settings Automation feature will now include an out-of-crop settings adjustment that engages when the combine is passing through previously harvested areas of the field. Now the feature supports wheat, barely, canola, soybean, corn and rice crops.

Predictive Ground Speed Automation is being updated with a new feature that helps operators manage unique field terrains such as waterways, ditches or terraces. Weed detection sensing is also being added. There will be new functionality incorporated into John Deere Operations Center that will use crop-type data from planting and satellite imagery to ensure all eligible combines have the essential harvest automation files necessary to increase productivity. Predictive Ground Speed Automation supports wheat, barley, canola, soybean, corn, peas, edible beans and lentils.

AutoTrac Turn Automation is being updated to automate the raising and lowering of the combine head for hands-free turning, and a new auto-unload camera with supporting hardware and software is available to help consistently fill grain carts and possibly reduce in-field spills.

(Dan Videtich/John Deere)

John Deere also announced a handful of harvest settings updates available in Operations Center, including grain harvest weight sharing and Grain Sensing with HarvestLab 3000 available now for all model year 2025 and newer X9, S7 and T6 combines.

And physical updates to model year 2026 machines include a new instructor seat in all models and a dual USB-C fast charging module in the cab. And the JD Link Boost satellite connectivity module is available for install on eligible combine models to maintain connectivity during harvest.

Sprayer Updates
John Deere says these updates were developed to give farmers cleaner fields that have less weed competition, leading to more yield potential.

See & Spray has new variable rate capabilities that can unlock precise applications and significant product savings in later-season fungicide and desiccant applications, preharvest passes and more, according to John Deere. Farmers can also now see the percentage of biomass each perception camera detects throughout the field. See & Spray Variable Rate capabilities will require a G5 or G5Plus CommandCenter display.

See & Spray Select is now available from the factory on model year 2026 John Deere 400 and 600 series sprayers with 90', 100' or 120' steel booms. See & Spray Select also will be available as a Precision Upgrades kit for model year 2018 and newer John Deere sprayers with ExactApply and a 120' steel boom.

See & Spray Premium is adding new boom sizes and is now available on Hagie STS20 sprayers. See & Spray Premium is compatible with 90', 100' or 120' booms.

(Mel Koltai/John Deere)

Beyond the See & Spray updates, John Deere also has two new AutoTrac options for sprayers:

AutoTrac Turn Automation (ATTA) is now compatible with John Deere 400 and 600 series self-propelled sprayers, 800R floaters, and Hagie STS12, STS16 and STS20 sprayers, model year 2022 and newer. The new feature is also included with Automation 4.0 on Gen4 displays and the G5 Advanced license for machines that have a G5 display.

AutoTrac Vision 2.0 is a new technology that ensures sprayer wheels remain centered within each crop row, and it boasts a maximum speed of 22 mph, slope performance of up to 6 degrees, and the ability to navigate curves with a radius of just 50 meters. AutoTrac Vision 2.0 is available on model year 2026 John Deere sprayers as a factory option.

John Deere is also introducing ExactApply Variable Rate capabilities – including multi-rate across the boom with AutoSelect Pulsing (and A+B pulse width modulation nozzle switching). Sprayer operators can now vary multiple application rates across the entire boom, up to 11 unique sections, leading to more precise product placement. Operators also can use increased rate ranges for variable rate prescriptions and curve compensation. This technology is available as a software update for model year 2023 to 2025 sprayers, and model year 2026 will come factory installed with updated software features and functionalities.

Planter Updates
John Deere announced four new planter updates:

A new rate controller, the John Deere Rate Controller 3, with the option to control and apply two liquid and/or anhydrous ammonia (NH3) products simultaneously across up to 16 sections. This can help farmers decrease the number of trips through the field while getting the same application work completed. John Deere says the new rate controller is suitable for a variety of row crops, ranches, high-value crops and even on golf courses.

Rate Controller 3 also features a new rate controller app that is available within the John Deere display menu. The rate controller app is fully compatible with Gen 4 v2 and G5 displays.

(Michael J Newell/John Deere)

John Deere says the new app will give farmers a similar experience as operating a self-propelled sprayer with a controller with a built-in base from the factory. This means farmers can now monitor their planter and rate controller functions on one screen on the display and execute easy adjustments, according to John Deere.

The new rate controller module also has a new harness and 48-pin connector, which expands the compatibility with third-party equipment.

Seed-Level Sensing provides farmers with a more accurate look at the level of seed remaining in the tank. It places a sensor in the tank that can measure the volume of seed left in the tank, which is then provided to the operator in the cab and the John Deere Operations Center. This feature is available on model year 2026 planters or as a Precision Upgrades kit for certain models back to model year 2022.

Fertilizer-Level Sensing is also new and it is similar to seed-level sensing, providing the operator with better information on the fertilizer level remaining in the tank. It is an external manifold that includes two pressure sensors, which are used to calculate both the liquid density as well as the volume remaining in the tank. This update is available on model year 2026 planters and is also a Precision Upgrades kit that can be added to machines that are model year 2022 and newer.

Active Vacuum Automation is available on model year 2026 planters with electric drives and the SeedStar 5 Monitoring System. This feature looks in real time at singulation and automatically adjusts the vacuum, helping to prevent skips and doubles.

To determine which new features and updates are available for existing machines or only on model year 2026 new machines, contact your local John Deere dealer.

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Dalton Dilldine: Next-Generation Producer Follows in His Father's Footsteps

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 22:00:00 GMT

Fourth-generation Arkansas farmer Dalton Dilldine always dreamed of farming and following in his father’s footsteps.

“I knew I wanted to farm and really couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” he says.

But Dilldine’s dad unexpectedly passed away when he was a senior in high school with a limited succession plan in place — leaving him with the choice to take over the operation, start his own farm or go to college.

He chose all three.

“I would go to school and come home every weekend. After I graduated, I started taking over the whole operation and really tried to do things that my father would be proud of - and that I could be proud for myself. I just tried to do my best every day.”

Expanding With Innovation
Located in the Delta of Arkansas, he co-managed Half Moon Farm with his mother until 2010 when he went on his own, creating Mezza Luna Farms. Now, Dilldine grows 6,000 acres of cotton, soybeans, wheat, corn and rice. Of those acres, 2,700 are owned and the rest rented. The farm also has four full-time employees and several H-2A workers.

His strategy for the operation is continuous improvement with a focus on profitability.

“One of my big goals is to just try to be efficient, whatever can be done. We use technology and buy bigger equipment to be able to do more with less,” he says. “Just finding people who want to work on our farm and want to help and understand how a farm works has been a big help for us.”

He also pushes his yields, working with NRCS on conservation programs and quickly adapting to new technology.

“We have moisture sensors in our fields that will tell me the optimal time to start and turn off irrigation. There’s automation in most of our wells, too. I can start them with my phone and turn them off. They’ll tell me if something’s going on,” he explains. “Our equipment with GPUs are an asset to see what’s going on in the field from my office. That’s been a huge blessing.”

Dilldine also purchased a commercial grain entity during the 2022 harvest season amid a drought that was leading to significant decreases in basis due to low river levels.

“It’s about 750,000 bushel storage. Right now, we can use about 600,000 of that capability,” he says. “I can dump trucks in about six minutes, and I can load them out in about 12 - which is pretty fast for a private grain facility.”

Adversity Strikes Twice
On top of losing his father, the beginning of Dilldine’s farming career was made even more challenging when he suffered a major injury that crushed two vertebrae in his back.

“I had a long road of recovery right in the beginning of farming,” he remembers. “I had to do a whole lot of talking on the phone and teaching somebody else how to run that sprayer. It was a lot to deal with.”

But he learned a valuable lesson that has served him well on the farm.

“I taught myself to be a whole lot more patient and to not be wide open all the time,” he says.

Dilldine’s wife, Skiver, who also assists on the farm when she’s not busy as a nurse practitioner, says she couldn’t be prouder of his progress.

“He didn’t have a mentor in his younger years to kind of guide him through some of the hard farming lessons, and he’s learned those on his own with the help of others. He’s just really put in a lot of legwork, a lot of tears and blood, and just really powered through all the adversities to come out on top,” she says.

Despite these challenges, Dilldine says he’s reached many of his farming goals - and others can too.

“I want young farmers to be aware that you can do it. It’s not impossible as often as it feels like,” he adds.

John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 18:30:00 GMT

John Deere is taking a step forward in autonomy and the technology retrofit market.

Chief Technology Officer Jahmy Hindman describes the effort as “real purpose, real autonomy”. He says the manufacturer is responding to the ongoing labor crunch that is causing headaches across the agriculture industry both domestically and abroad.

To help its users continue to farm with less reliance on human labor, John Deere has announced a suite of new retrofit autonomy kits for tractors and tillage implements, orchard sprayers, and even for the commercial landscape and construction equipment segments.

The kits feature redesigned camera arrays and rugged NVIDIA processing units paired with Blue River Technology’s machine learning algorithms, enabling John Deere machines to autonomously mimic how a human operator would react in the driver’s seat, without anyone actually sitting in the driver’s seat.

Let’s dive in and learn more about what John Deere is launching this week at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What’s New for Tractors?
John Deere and its integrated Blue River Technologies team have re-architected what it is calling its Next Generation Perception System autonomy retrofit kits. The kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors, and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors. Also coming from John Deere is autonomy on its 5ML Series tractors.

To go along with its autonomous tractor kits, there are retrofit kits that outfit select 2017 and newer John Deere tillage implements with additional lighting, a GPS receiver mast, and harnessing for fully autonomous tiling. These autonomy ready features are factory installed as a base package for select model year 2025 tillage tools. Today, the system is only compatible with John Deere tillage implements with the autonomy kits installed, but in the future Deere is working towards compatibility with third-party tillage tools.

The new autonomy kits are made for model year 2022 and newer 9R and 9RX tractors , and model year 20.5 and newer 8R and 8RX tractors, as well as select John Deere tillage tools.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Both autonomy kits will be sold within John Deere’s Precision Upgrades product segment, which the company re-branded in 2023. So far, the kits have been field tested across thousands of acres of cropland. John Deere representatives anticipate the kits will one day be compatible with planting, harvesting, and broad acre application machines. But today, autonomous field tillage is the first domino to fall.

“This expands our autonomous capabilities dramatically,” says Willy Pell, CEO, Blue River Technologies. “Farmers should not have to buy a new tractor to experience autonomy.

Pell adds the kits were designed with ease of installation in mind, especially for tractors and implements that come autonomy ready from the factory.

Let’s dive deeper into some of the components that enable autonomous capabilities within the Next Generation Perception Kits.

Let’s start with the kit’s redesigned camera arrays, which are installed onto the top of a compatible tractor model’s cab and wired into the control module. Within that new camera array are 16 stereo cameras that shoot continuously at triple overlap, giving the system a 360-degree field of vision around the tractor with plenty of redundancy for sensing crops, obstacles, potential humans and other hazards in the field.

What those cameras “see” is processed on ruggedized NVIDIA Jetson GPUs that can withstand temperatures down to -40 degrees F. With the cameras operating as the eyes of the system, the Jetson units serve as the brains and connective tissue, using edge processing to read, react, and fire off commands to the machine just as a human operator would.

Farmers that experienced John Deere’s tractor autonomy kits in the past – this version represents the second evolution of the technology since John Deere introduced it in 2022 – told the company they wanted the driver-less machines to cover more acres in a day, or night. John Deere made that happen, increasing speeds 40% to 12 mph with this iteration, and lighting kits have been added on to allow around-the-clock field work.

“We want to meet customers where they’re at today; our customers across the Midwest want to customize their tillage setups with various tools of different sizes and configurations, and we want to make as many of those tools autonomy capable with one system as possible, and that’s what we’ve done with the Generation 2 Perception System,” says Aaron Wells, Engineering and AI Systems, Blue River Technologies. “This is real autonomy that I can set, forget, and run in the field or monitor using John Deere Operations Center Mobile.”

Local John Deere dealers will have a limited number of kits available for 2025 with a full launch tabbed for 2026.

Orchard tractors and sprayers
The Next Generation Perception System kit has been slightly tweaked for permanent orchard crop growers. Those growers generally use lower horsepower machines with narrower footprints to complete tasks between trellised rows of grapes, tree nuts, and other orchard crops like apples.

In California’s massive specialty crop industry, John Deere says that over 50% of machine operator jobs posted by farming operations are going unfilled. John Deere believes its autonomy kits can lessen that reliance on seasonal labor and help farmers hit tight production windows in order to maximize yields.

The Next Generation Perception kit for orchard tractors and sprayers features fewer camera arrays than the row crop kit but adds an integrated LiDAR sensor to 3D image tree canopies and orchard trellising in real-time.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

Whether we’re talking about the large tractor autonomy kits or the orchard tractor-sprayer kit, the systems share many common components. Rather than needing 16 stereo cameras, the autonomous orchard tractor kit deploys seven cameras alongside three LiDAR sensors. The LiDAR sensors provide a real-time 3D image of vine and orchard crops as the tractor moves around the orchard, giving the machine the ability to tell the pull-behind sprayer implement where to apply and where not to apply.

The 5ML Specialty Tractor, along with the key Precision Essentials technology that will enable autonomy, JDLink Modem, StarFire Receiver, G5 Display, and John Deere Operations Center are all available today, with the autonomy kit being available in limited quantities in 2026.

“We’ve developed this incredible second-generation technology that allows us to scale across different crops and new industries,” says Igino Cafiero, CEO and founder, Bear Flag Robotics. John Deere acquired Bear Flag in 2021 for $250 million.

Something for your side hustle?
I have no data to back this up, but I would guess there might be some row crop farmers out there that might own commercial landscaping, construction, or excavation businesses in addition to farming full time.

For the commercial landscape segment, John Deere has extended its next Generation Perception kit to automate a new green and yellow autonomous battery electric zero-turn mower.

This autonomous battery powered commercial lawn mower remains in the concept stage today but John Deere anticipates it being available for landscape professionals in the future.

(Photos courtesy of John Deere)

While still in the concept stage of development, the commercial mower can be programmed to autonomously cut common professional landscaping patterns while its operator monitors the machine from nearby with what looks and feels like a beefed-up Xbox controller. There is also a rear standing deck that can be flipped down, with dedicated operator controls on the machine, in case the operator feels like hopping onboard and steering the mower.

And for the construction world, John Deere has applied the next Generation perception kit to create a driverless commercial dump truck. The truck can autonomously move material from Point A to Point B and even know exactly where it needs to dump its load. Site workers can use the John Deere Operations Center to define ideal routes and start, stop, and unload the giant diesel-powered machines from outside of the cab.

Again, like their row crop and specialty crop farming brethren, commercial landscape and construction firms are also feeling the squeeze of the labor shortage.

“There’s no better story, I think, than using technology for the benefit of humanity. It is our purpose and what pulls all of this together,” Hindman says. “Our number one mission in developing these kits is to help reduce the dependency on unskilled labor. We think autonomy is a significant answer to solving that dilemma for our customers.”

To learn more about the Next Generation Perception System head to Deere.com/autonomy

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Market Research Firm: Autonomous Tractor Segment To Grow 25% By 2030

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 20:06:14 GMT

A recent market research report from USD Analytics says that the global autonomous farm tractor market is set to grow by 25% between the years 2024 to 2030.

The report indentifies John Deere, Kubota, CNH Industrial, AGCO, Yanmar, Fendt, Mahindra, Escorts, Trimble, Raven Industries, Topcon, and Autonomous Solutions as “key market players” in the report.

It defines autonomous tractors as “self-driving tractors that use AI and GPS technology to perform farming tasks without human intervention, enhancing agricultural productivity.”

The report also indentifies North America and Europe as the two primary markets for autonomous tractor technologies, with Latin-America and Asia-Pacific as its “fastest growing regions.”

To request a sample copy of the full report, click here.

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A Farmer Can Dream, Right? Tesla Robots As the Farm Labor Force of the Future?

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 17:35:58 GMT

With a visual form ripped straight from a skin-crawl inducing robot thriller, Tesla’s new AI-bot, Optimus, is eliciting strong reactions from tech advocates and flip-phone touting technophobes.

Let’s indulge our imaginations for just a second and imagine how a farmer could put one of Musk’s $20,000 helper robots to work around the family farm in, say, the year 2040. I use 2040 because, even though the prototypes in the video below look awesome, it turns out the AI behind it needs more work before any farmer would feel safe setting a squad of them loose on the farm.

Our own Clinton Griffiths was also inspired by Optimus’ unveiling. In his upcoming column in the November issue of Farm Journal, Clinton gets right to the heart of the issue, and that’s whether the bots will pan out on the farm?

The real test, he writes, “will be whether it can keep its glossy finish motoring along regardless of whether or not the field is mud-free.”

I couldn’t agree more, Clinton. Serving up fancy drinks during an unveiling party on a glitzy Hollywood film studio lot is one thing. Standing up to all the dust and heat and tough conditions of your average farm or ranch is a different beast altogether.

In that vein, we offer up the following farm chore list Optimus can take over from here on out.

No, seriously Opti, you don’t need our permission. Just go ahead and take care of these few little things every single day for the rest of time, and we’ll be off, I don’t know, fishing at the lake with the kids, rocking on the front porch, or something.

Farm equipment maintenance tech
Director of crop protection jug disposal
Backpack spraying around-the-clock weed warrior
Chief grain bin inspector
Head ladder climber
Irrigation pivot inspector general
Head high in July crop scout
Pig loader and unloader extraordinaire
Master bottle mixer and calf feeder

Now that you’ve read my list, I’m curious how you would use a robot that walks, talks and moves like a real human (and never gets tired, bored or spends 20 minutes staring at its phone) on your farm? or click

Share your robot wish list by clicking the green “Respond Here” button or click here .

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Tech News: Purdue Researchers Use AI to Predict Corn Yields, Solix Robot Enjoys Successful Debut and more

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 20:01:00 GMT

University researchers analyze data, predict corn yields with AI

Purdue University geomatics PhD candidate Claudia Aviles Toledo, working with her faculty advisors and co-authors Melba Crawford and Mitch Tuinstra, demonstrated the capability of a recurrent neural network to predict corn yields from several remote sensing technologies and environmental and genetic data.

“This is one of the first AI models to add plant genetics to the story of yield in multiyear large plot-scale experiments,” Tuinstra said. “Now, plant breeders can see how different traits react to varying conditions, which will help them select traits for future more resilient varieties. Growers can also use this to see which varieties might do best in their region.”

Read the full report over at Purdue.edu

Reinke launches E3 precision center pivot system

Reinke Manufacturing has unveiled E3, which the company says is the first precision series of center pivot systems.

The patented irrigation system offers accuracy and performance, ensuring consistent and efficient water management and distribution across diverse field conditions.

E3 is the first precision series of spans and end booms with uniform coupler spacing (in 30” and 60” intervals) to ensure a uniform water application rate the entire length of the system, exceeding previous water uniformity benchmarks.

E3 also includes a variety of new features:

Customizable system configurations using precision spans.
ReinLock, a new anti-racking truss system designed for superior strength.
Reinke V-ring seals on every pipe connection.
Unique single-leg tower design.
ESAC, a series of Electronic Swing Arm Corners designed to irrigate corners for full-field accuracy.

E3 will be available for sale in select markets during the 2025 growing season.

Solinftec details Solix robot progress, challenges

Solinftec has shared an update on the first commercial season of its Solix application robot.

For the 2024 growing season there were 50 robots in use on farms in Indiana and Illinois, monitoring more than 65 million plants. Solix reduced herbicide volumes up to 98% and increased potential yields of row crops by 10%.

Solix is tackling three challenges faced by its customers:

Chemical reduction: by reducing chemical usage, Solix brings a return on investment (ROI) and supports farmers in their efforts to optimize costs.
Labor: the autonomy of Solix Sprayer Robots addresses labor challenges that many customers encounter in the market, reducing reliance on labor.
Sustainability: Solix promotes sustainability by enabling farmers to produce more within the same area, effectively allowing them to achieve greater yields with fewer resources.

Looking ahead to 2025, Solinftec will be expanding its Solix platform into additional states in the U.S. heartland.

Topcon launches Value Line Steering solution

Topcon Agriculture is releasing its new Value Line Steering solution, which the company says is designed specifically for farmers using mid-range tractors on small to medium-sized farms.

The new offering represents a significant step in making autosteering technology accessible to a broader range of farmers.

The Value Line Steering solution is a technology package that includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, electric steering wheel controller, touchscreen console, and Horizon Lite software. The system is compatible with front-wheel-steer tractors. Farmers also have the option to add local, satellite or RTK correction services for enhanced precision.

The Value Line Steering solution is available now through Topcon Agriculture’s global network of authorized dealers.

Equipment Expert: Comb Through Your Combine To Ensure Uptime And Performance

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 14:01:00 GMT

As fall harvest approaches, ensuring that combines are in optimal condition is essential for limiting downtime and completing your harvest efficiently.

Jerrad Bourne, business development manager, Ziegler Ag Equipment, has several tips for farmers to prepare their combines for the fall harvest crunch. Ziegler Ag is an equipment dealer serving growers across Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri.

Bourne says it is important farmers start with a thorough visual inspection of the combine and its various moving components. Since many farmers are already familiar with their machines, they can identify key wear points and potential problems before a breakdown.

Bourne offers the following checklist for the initial inspection:

Gearboxes: Check for dirt and dust buildup, which could indicate a leak. A leak can stem from a loose bolt or failing seal, or it could suggest the need for a full replacement.
Feeder house chains, concaves, and sieves: Look for any rock damage, misaligned, bent, or broken parts.
Hydraulic fittings and hoses: Inspect for leaks, wear, or cracking due to aging.
Visible bearings: Examine for signs of play or damage.

Bourne adds that farmers who don’t have time to complete these inspections themselves can lean on services from the local equipment dealer, like Ziegler Ag’s preventative maintenance inspections. Dealer technicians are trained to complete thorough diagnostics and provide the farmer with a list of necessary repairs and estimated costs. Bourne notes that it is also beneficial to conduct similar inspections post-harvest.

Beyond the mechanical aspects of the combine itself, technology workups are also essential, Bourne says.

Corn Harvest - Pound Farms - By Lindsey Pound 2022

(Lindsey Pound)

Combines today are equipped with GPS and yield monitors, and newer models automate many functions such as header height and some of the adjustments within the threshing and separation modules.

Bourne recommends downloading and installing the latest software updates before heading to the field to ensure systems are functioning properly and automation features are working smoothly. Ensure yield monitors are properly calibrated before heading to the field, as well. Testing various components in your farm shop helps avoid issues on the first day of harvest.

Should problems arise, local dealerships and manufacturers offer phone support to resolve most technology-related issues.

Equally important to a successful harvest is the condition of the combine head, the first point of contact for bringing crops into the machine. A pre-season visual inspection of corn and grain heads is necessary. Key areas to check include:

Chains: Ensure they are tight.
Gearboxes: Inspect for leaks.
Bearings: Confirm they are tight and functioning smoothly.
Sickle sections and guards: Check for straightness and sharpness.
Belt tensioners: Ensure they are snug and operating properly.

Corn head stalk rolls and chains: Check for smooth operation and proper alignment.

Bourne also advises stocking up on commonly needed parts like sensors, which can save time and prevent frustrating delays during harvest. A quick check with the local service representative or the machine’s owner’s manual can provide a list of useful parts to have on hand.

If breakdowns occur, Bourne says farmers should contact their local equipment dealer, as most will offer 24/7 phone support and remote troubleshooting. That way a technician can troubleshoot issues, arrange repairs, and keep farmers updated via text or email, ensuring maximum uptime during harvest.

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Machinery and Tech News: CropX Acquisition, See and Spray Update, New GSI Grain Dryers

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 19:15:00 GMT

CropX scoops up nitrogen sensor tech firm

CropX is finalizing its acquisition of EnGeniousAg, a startup focused on advanced nitrogen sensing.

EnGeniousAg developed a nitrogen sensing technology that offers farmers new precision tools to optimize applications and minimize environmental impacts. Its patented technology provides users with near-instantaneous, in-field nitrogen measurements.

CropX will integrate EnGeniousAg’s technology into its agronomic farm management system, enhancing nutrient management capabilities for its users.

“In our global search for synergistic technologies in the nutrient management space, EnGeniousAg stood out with high-potential technology that is ideally suited to our mission,” said Tomer Tzach, CEO, CropX.

This is the sixth acquisition for CropX, following its most recent acquisition of Australia’s Green Brain in December 2023.

GSI intros new mixed flow dryers for 2025 harvest season

GSI is releasing a new lineup of Mixed Flow dryers for the 2025 harvest season. The manufacturer says its new dryer offerings promote greater efficiency and maximize grain quality.

“Our new Mixed Flow dryers reduce downtime and maintain capacity with no screens to clean during the busy harvest season,” said Alan Lockwood, conditioning product manager, GSI. “They can also dry multiple crops without changeover or loss of capacity.”

Notable features include:

A modular design that can grow with a farm operation.
Lower airflow rates that maximize grain quality and improve fuel efficiency.
Independently controlled modules that allow for multi-zone temperature, as well as the ability to run full heat or dry/cool modes.
Can be loaded with either a leveling auger or a gravity fill box and unloaded with dual 7-inch meter rolls that supply grain to a single-drag discharge conveyor.

For more information, contact your local GSI dealer.

John Deere: Farmers halving herbicide spend with See & Spray

John Deere says its See & Spray technology saved farmers an estimated 8 million gallons of herbicide mix across more than 1 million acres during the 2024 growing season, according to a press release from the manufacturer.

The AI-powered, weed-sensing technology demonstrated an average herbicide savings of 59% in corn, soybean and cotton crops. Deere says the savings are the equivalent of 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools over an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

According to a recent Iowa State University study, See & Spray technology demonstrated an average of 76% product savings across all test fields and an economic savings of $15.7/ac.

“We’re spraying less chemical, it’s [See & Spray] saving us money, and it’s better for the environment,” said Bill Came, a farmer from Salina, Kansas. “We ran through our herbicide costs we were going to have and dropped them by two-thirds. That is going to make our sprayer payment.”

In 2025, John Deere will introduce a new initiative, Application Savings Guarantee, which Deere says will ensure farmers only pay for the technology when there is a savings in application.

Vermeer launches mower + conditioner line for hay operations

Vermeer is releasing its new line of mower conditioners for hay producers. The lineup includes four models: MC90, MC105, MC120 and MC150, each offering a range of cutting widths.

The MC90 and MC105 are side pull models designed for smaller to medium operations, featuring cutting widths of 9 ft and 10.5 ft. For larger operations, Vermeer offers two center pull models: the MC120 (12 ft cutting width) and the MC150 (15 ft cutting width).

The entire line is equipped with the Q3 cutter bar, known for its convenient maintenance and long-lasting durability. The Q3 cutter bar features the Quick-Clip blade retention system, Quick-Change shear ring and quick-check oil for each individual cutter unit, all backed by a 3-year cutter bar coverage.

For more information about the Vermeer MC90, MC105, MC120 and MC150 mower conditioners, visit vermeer.com or contact your local Vermeer dealer.

Ziegler Ag Equipment now exclusive Fendt and Gleaner combines dealer

Ziegler Ag Equipment has become the exclusive distributor of Fendt and Gleaner combines throughout its Iowa, Minnesota and northwest Missouri territories.

Ziegler reportedly began its combine-exclusive relationship with parent-brand AGCO on August 3, 2024, but the dealer will continue selling parts and servicing competitor combines through December 2025.

For more details on this dealership change, go to ZieglerAg.com.

EarthOptics, Pattern Ag Combine Forces On Next-Level Soil Data Analytics

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:26:47 GMT

EarthOptics is merging with data analytics and predictive modeling firm Pattern Ag. Executives at the newly-formed venture feel the combined company will be better positioned to offer enhanced soil testing and data analysis services.

Todd Martin is one of the founders of EarthOptics and he will assume the chief growth officer role at the merged company. Martin helped launch the startup in 2018 with the aim of providing farmers with better, faster, and more economical field-level soil data than traditional grid soil sampling programs.

The experienced ag industry vet pulls zero punches in stating that precision ag thus far has largely failed farmers with overwhelmingly complex and costly-to-collect data sets siloed in walled off platforms devoid of revenue-generating insights. It is his belief that combining with Pattern Ag positions EarthOptics to rise up and deliver more ROI for its farmers.

“The newly merged EarthOptics, when it’s EarthOptics plus Pattern Ag, is going to be able to deliver for farmers like never before,” Martin states. “We can replace their current soil testing regime and - for about the same price as two and a half acre grid sampling for variable-rate fertilizer - give them a prescriptive tillage recommendation and variable-rate fertilization data down to the best resolution that is currently possible. And now we can combine that with the biological and soil DNA data from Pattern Ag and tell them all about disease expectations in their soil, and about pest expectations.”

EarthOptics’ technology includes two and soon-to-be-released three spectrum analyzing sensor systems - deployed via tech-outfitted side-by-side UTVs that local service providers run across acres throughout the Midwest - all with the aim of providing farmers with detailed soil maps and actionable variable rate fertility insights. Martin says this boots-on-the-ground approach is what defines EarthOptics. The data provided includes soil type, moisture, disease and pest predictions, and more.

EarthOptics also says it can help farmers with climate-related programs by measuring carbon in the soil and providing tools to assess and report data that measures carbon intensity and field emissions.

“We’ll help farmers that want to enroll in climate programs and look at their carbon intensity scores or their field emissions, and sometimes we’ll be able to utilize satellites for some of that,” Martin explains. “But when it comes to soil, we believe you’ve got to get your hands dirty. You’re going to have to be in the field. You cannot use satellite technology, no matter what anybody says, it just does not exist to do the type of analysis and data gathering that we can do in the field.”

The two companies plan to unify under the EarthOptics brand name. Other considerations like branding colors and a logo to represent the newly combined company will be worked out soon as executives from both groups come together and pencil out the venture’s go-forward strategy.

Want to learn more about this new soil data partnership? Study up on all of the publicly released details here.

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Machinery and Tech News: John Deere Expands Tillage, New Kioti RX40, New Holland Combine Release, and More

Tue, 20 Aug 2024 20:20:00 GMT

John Deere Expands Tillage Lineup

John Deere announced the launch of a new and improved Minimum Tillage (MT) Series In-Line Ripper and Coulter Chisel (CC) Series, a first for the company, completing its tillage offerings.

The manufacturer says its new MT Series offers increased wear component longevity, enhancing dependability, while the CC Series achieves a working speed of 7 mph.

“The new CC Series has been developed to give farmers the ability to tackle primary tillage needs faster than before,” said Michael Porter, John Deere go-to-market manager for tillage equipment. “With working speeds of 7 mph, this is a highly productive primary tillage tool.”

Head here to learn more about John Deere’s tillage tools.

Kioti Adds RX40 Utility Tractor

Building upon its utility RX20 line, Kioti Tractor’s new RX40 Series boasts significant upgrades from its predecessor, providing operators an enhanced experience both in the field and during long work hours, the company says.

Some notable new features on the RX40 include:

A new spacious five-pillar cab with increased visibility, ample head- and legroom, and a deluxe air-ride suspension seat. The new cab is also climate controlled and offers an option buddy seat.
An electronic 3-point hitch for control of implements along with power steering, a tilt steering wheel, and an LED instrument panel.
A fuel efficient, inline, water-cooled four-cylinder turbocharged CRDI diesel engine with a large 26-gallon fuel capacity is available across five models ranging from 66-73 horsepower.
The RX40 Series has a three-point lift capacity of up to 4,327 pounds.

You can learn more about the RX40 at Kioti.com.

New Holland Unveiling New Combine, T7 Tractor Upgrades and More

New Holland will unveil a new Class 9 CR combine, a new telehandler series, upgrades to the T7 tractor line, an all-new Forage Cruiser harvester and a suite of precision and digital technologies, according to a press release from the manufacturer.

Additional details about the new launches will be released over the next week.

To check out the latest additions to the New Holland portfolio and updates to its digital and precision farming technology stack, visit with your local New Holland dealer or check out agriculture.newholland.com

Swiss Smart Sprayer Group Names North America CEO

Ecorobotix, the North American division of the Swiss AgTech and AI company, appointed Cameron Holbrook as the new CEO of the company’s North America business.

Cameron, a passionate AgTech enthusiast, brings extensive industry knowledge and a global perspective from his previous leadership roles at Nutrien, John Deere, and Amazon.

“Given Cameron’s vast experiences in the agricultural industry, we are fully confident in his ability to advance our business in North America while providing our customers with high value solutions,” says Dominique Mégret, CEO, Ecorobotix SA.

Learn more about Ecorobotix here.

Topcon Names Di Federico Next-in-Line, Announces O’Connor Retirement

Topcon Positioning Systems has announced that Ivan Di Federico will succeed current president and CEO Ray O’Connor, who will retire in September 2025.

Di Federico currently serves as executive vice president and chief strategy officer. After two decades with the company, Di Federico will assume his new role on September 1, 2024.

O’Connor will transition to the role of Chairman of the Topcon Positioning Systems Board of Directors effective September 1, 2024. The company says he will guide and support the executive leadership team during the transition.

Nebraska U Project Explores Ag-IOT Sensor Tech

With a half-million dollar-plus grant from the National Science Foundation’s Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) University of Nebraska–Lincoln computer scientist Nirnimesh Ghose aims to develop solutions to enable smart, scalable and secure wireless operations in a modern farm setting.

Ghose will collaborate with Mehmet Can Vuran, Dale M. Jensen Chair and Professor in the School of Computing, and Yufeng Ge, professor of biological systems engineering, on the project.

The Ag-IoT field is interesting because it has not been explored much, and the security of it has not been explored,” Ghose said. “There are a lot of wireless devices that are deployed to collect data, but if the data is not secure, someone could inject malicious data into the network.”

Learn more about the project here.

Technology News: BASF Adds Spray Timer to xarvio, Case IH Expands Tillage and Tech Offerings, and more

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 20:31:00 GMT

BASF is introducing a new spray timer tool for efficient and accurate fungicide management, according to a press release .

The digital tool is available in xarvio FIELD MANAGER and will alert users to when a fungicide treatment is needed for a specific field. Alerts are based on the existing disease situation, advanced growth stage and disease prediction modeling, which includes weather and historic field data.

Spray alerts also provide an overview of daily weather conditions while connecting operators to product lists to create tank mixes.

“Spray timer users can gain access to prescriptive fungicide timing and field placement alerts, empowering them to improve disease contro while optimizing fungicide investment,” said Kyle King, U.S. digital farming commercial lead, BASF Agricultural Solutions.

Spray Timer works complementary to xarvio SeedSelect in FIELD MANAGER, providing decision support for seeding and crop protection in corn and soybeans.

To learn more, visit: www.xarvio.com.

Case IH expands tech offerings

Case IH is announcing new precision tech offerings that promise to limit the physical wear and tear of manual, in-field corrections and offer greater accuracy and data insights.

For model year 2025 machines:

Soil Command will be factory-fitted on select sizes of Case IH Speed-Tiller 475 and VT-Flex 435 tillage equipment and work on any ISO-compatible tractor that is equipped to handle hydraulic needs.
Case IH Active Implement Guidance gives farmers a plug-and-play system to correct implement drift while navigating planting, tillage and side-dressing.

“Technology is about more than data; it should also make farmers’ lives easier,” said Kendal Quandahl, precision technology segment lead, Case IH. “Whether it’s fewer in-and-out cab trips to adjust tillage machinery or taking soil management to the next level with prescription tillage, we are providing flexible technology solutions to meet the individual needs of farmers.”

MSU researchers develop low-cost irrigation sensors

Michigan State University researchers have developed and are testing a low-cost irrigation monitoring system called LOCOMOS, according to a university press release.

The work is led by Younsuk Dong, an assistant professor and irrigation specialist in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.

With LOCOMOS, the in-field sensors measure soil moisture, leaf wetness and other environmental conditions. The data is analyzed by software that generates precise irrigation recommendations and delivers them to growers via a smartphone app. The development of the system and app was facilitated through a partnership with the MSU Innovation Center.

Iowa State alumnus tackles soil compaction with SmartProbe

Terraform Tillage’s new SmartProbe System features the SmartProbe app and a mounting kit that attaches a smartphone to a soil penetrometer, a device that identifies soil compaction by measuring resistance to vertical penetration.

With the SmartProbe a farmer can record penetrometer readings and create maps showing yield-robbing soil compaction at different depths in the field. This allows sub-surface tillage to be focused on areas of the field that need it.

“Growers know soil compaction isn’t uniform across a field,” says Josh Jeske, founder and developer, Terraform Tillage. “The SmartProbe System allows growers to focus subsoiling on areas that will provide an economic return.”

The SmartProbe app is available in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. The app is free until 2025. After that, it is available on a subscription basis. The mounting kit can be purchased at the Terraform Tillage website.

The SmartProbe System is also available as a service in Iowa. Growers there can contract Terraform Tillage to map fields for $5 per acre.

Explore further at TerraformTillage.com.

Inside InnerPlant’s Farmer-Led Investment Run and Why It’s Better Than Traditional VC

Wed, 07 Aug 2024 13:12:58 GMT

InnerPlant, a seed technology startup with a transgenic, early stress alerting seed trait in soybeans, recently raised $30 million in Series B funding. About half of the funds came from a group of farmer-investors headed by Coutts Agro. Saskatchewan grain farmer Matt Coutts is Coutts Agro’s Chief Investment Officer.

How did InnerPlant set itself apart?

Coutts’ experience with InnerPlant thus far has been unique and a refreshing departure from the typical venture capital funding cycle, he says.

The company was not the least bit shy about trekking up to Canada’s vast western plains and putting boots-on-the-ground to breath the fresh prairie air and take in his operation to gather how the two could potentially work together. And, funny enough, it all literally got off the ground by Coutts filling out one of those online “Contact Us” forms.

That’s one lesson Coutts has picked up from his relationship with InnerPlant that he wants to share with other farmers: don’t be shy about going online, filling out those forms and throwing your hat in the ring if it seems like something that would be a good fit. It might seem like a futile exercise at the time, and that nobody will respond, but you’ll never truly know until you give it a go.

“We’ve trialed so many different products and met with so many different companies,” Coutts adds. “InnerPlant has shown us a much different level of dedication to farmers, at least that I see. Shelly and her entire team were engaged right from the start, coming up to the farm and delivering the pitch right here in one of our barns. It’s hard to find companies as farmer committed as InnerPlant.”

What did InnerPlant learn from working with farmer-investors?

For InnerPlant CEO Shely Aronov, her journey with Coutts and his group cemented a strong conviction in working with farmer-led investment groups over traditional venture capital firms. She believes the shift helped accelerate InnerPlant’s journey from startup to a “real company with customer-centric values.”

“We have the retailers and growers engaged, and we have a technology that is meaningful and moves the needle. Now we must work with farmers to get the point price right, because this is not the time for expensive products,” Aronov says.

Over the last handful of months, InnerPlant has undertaken a pilot program with Illinois-based retailer Growmark FS’ Sentinel Plots to ground truth its technology. Soon you will start to notice the company launching its futuristic seeds with select farms in Illinois and Iowa as it fires up its technology and starts to “scale up”.

“We’re building a team of agronomists and crop specialists in the Midwest right now to support the rollout,” Aronov says, noting its technology remains most effective “with the help of an agronomist.”

Another thing she has learned is if you want to be successful with ag tech, you need to be on the ground and connected to your potential customers.

“We have to train the trainers, and they have to train the farmers, and in order to make that happen, we need to be there alongside them,” Aronov adds.

Why are farmers attracted to InnerPlant?

InnerPlant soybeans emit different wavelengths of light if they are stressed, hinting at possible disease pressure in the field.

(InnerPlant)

“It gets us a data layer into our crops that we don’t have today,” Coutts says. “Being able to manage stress days and weeks ahead is a game changer. If you’re reacting to plant disease you can already see, you’re too late. Of course, you’re hoping that it’s not that bad, but at that point you are probably way behind the ball.”

Coutts and his family oversee 120,000-plus acres of productive, cereal-producing cropland in Saskatchewan, Canada. The group grows lentils, canola, and wheat.

Once a farmer hits that type of acreage level, technology must return profits rather quickly to be valuable, he says. The other side of the coin is, that type of acreage also paints a big, shiny red target on your back at many technology companies. They see that acreage and the little dollar signs start dancing around in their heads before they’ve even pulled up to the farmgate.

According to Ag Funder News, the rest of the funding outside of what Coutts Agro put in came from climate investor Systemiq Capital as well as Deere and Company and Bison Ventures.

What is InnerPlant technology?

InnerPlant’s seed traits signal plant stress – the signals will be able to be picked up optically by satellites once the seeds are widely distributed. For now, the company is using stationary detection towers to scan the invisibly fluorescing plants.

To get there a transgenic gene is edited, or inserted, into the soybean plant’s genome – like inserting a new line of code into a computer program. This enables optic scanners to see what our human eyes cannot: where stress is taking hold in a farmer’s field at a plant-by-plant level.

The plant data is then correlated to areas of the field via the companies’ new CropVoice software program and can pick up stressed plants within one or two days of the initial infection, Aronov adds.

Previous InnerPlant coverage:

InnerPlant - Tech That Visualizes Plant Stress - Names Germplasm Partner

GrowMark To Pilot InnerPlant’s Fluorescent Soybeans

Plants That Talk: Coming Soon To A Field Near You

Landus’ Secret Weapon: Military Grade AI Tech Connects Farm Data Dots

Wed, 24 Jul 2024 19:15:13 GMT

Farmers and agronomists today are virtually drowning in data, but one Midwest cooperative has a new secret weapon up its sleeve.

Landus (Des Moines, Iowa) has seemingly struck digital farm data gold and, as with all things Landus of late, farmers themselves look to be the big winners here.

Landus and American invention company Tesseract Ventures have joined forces to bring military-grade, predictive data analysis straight from the high-tech battlefield of today to a new digital decision support platform for farmers and Landus agronomists. The cooperative is calling its new software offering Synthesis.

What is Synthesis?

Synthesis automates the collection and combination of data across an incredibly wide swath of sources – everything from satellites and drones to on-farm sensors, weather stations, and even disparate farm machinery brands.

The Synthesis system leverages algorithms originally designed for advanced military intelligence applications to literally synthesize all the relevant available data for a select field or operation into three different modules (Plan, Perform, and Prove) that farmers and their agronomists can use to make digital twins, or virtual simulations, of their fields.

By using these digital twins of their real-life fields, the farm management process goes from an inexact, multiple-variable guessing game to a laser-sharp predictive level. There is no more guessing, for example, what would happen to yield and the farmer’s bottom line if Farmer Joe were to put on this generic fungicide at V5. The platform is able to wormhole its way into the future, visualizing in real-time the impact of various management decisions for the farmer before any action is taken.

“It’s a radical way to reimagine information exchange and how to action it,” says John Boucard, Tesseract CEO. “We are creating and deploying 21st century human machine interfaces that can navigate the past, present, and future – today, we now can visualize the past and the present with real-time and edge data, and then envision future events and their impact before they happen.”

In developing and releasing Synthesis to the greater farm universe, Landus and Tesseract have essentially unlocked one of ag tech’s previously unsolvable quandaries: how to take all these different data layers and previously incompatible file formats, and combine them in a single platform where the farmer can have a complete 360-degree view of everything that is happening as well as everything that could happen in the field?

“Agriculture has great data,” says Matt Carstens, CEO of Landus. “But we have never been able to get it into one spot and then let the farmer analyze the data in real-time to create a digital twin that can visualize virtually any scenario. Now they can go out on the farm and be confident.”

Data visualization details

Having viewed a pilot version of Synthesis during our visit to Landus’ Innovation Connector, the platform’s data visualization capability leaps through the screen and grabs your attention. Many digital platforms lay out data in a two-dimensional, color-coded view across a field, but Synthesis has a unique three-dimensional approach to displaying different areas of the field.

Bear with me, as it’s tough to describe it here in words, but it’s a tiered, graphical representation of your real-time and future yield potential: vertically climbing spikes in green are healthy, high-performing areas of the field, while lower-lying, red colored bars show areas in the field with lower yield potential. The software doesn’t break down fields into management zones, it actually visualizes the entire field as one entity.

Farmers and their Landus agronomists can run endless scenarios through the digital twins of their various fields to benchmark management practices and what effect they will have on the crop, kind of like how a high-ranking general in the United States Military would use Tesseract technology to wargame various battlefield scenarios before finalizing a mission plan.

The digital platform today remains in development, but the partners are getting very close to releasing the first iteration, and several Landus farmers have been involved in field tests. Illinois farmer Kevin Kennedy is one of a handful that have been granted early access to the Synthesis. He is convinced Synthesis will be a seismic leap forward in farm management information system innovation.

“Having a platform that I can bring all of the different types of data sources into one centralized location, it gives me the foundation I need to use AI toolsets to build these really detailed analyses around so many different scenarios in production,” he says. “We’ve never been able to have enough of our data in one location and have it in a format that we can access and do this type of predictive analysis.”

Leveling the data playing field for farmers

Landus’ SkyScout drone-enabled scouting service is one such data platform that smoothly integrates into the Synthesis platform. Instead of having to log in and run analysis in both platforms, or export huge data sets from one platform into another, all of the data that comes from SkyScout’s flights flows automatically into a linked Synthesis dashboard. The rubber really meets the road where fresh scouting data is combined with the historic field level data that Synthesis also pulls in automatically.

“In Iowa right now a lot of the fields don’t have an average stand, so you’re probably looking at an average crop at best,” Kennedy explains. “This just allows me to have more confidence in my real-time decision-making process.”

According to Boucard, that is exactly what Tesseract set out to do when it started ideating what could happen if it placed its AI-based military wargaming technology in the hands of Midwestern farmers: provide an instant common operating picture for farmers and agronomists to use to immerse themselves in the data and make critical decisions really fast, and really accurately.

“To be able to unlock the power of that farmer-agronomist collaboration and let the farmer share that data intelligently with whomever it makes sense to share it with – the farmer should own all their own data, so we’re giving them the power now,” he says. “That will force multiply and create a market that’s truly competitive rather than dominated.”

To learn more about how Synthesis can help you harness the power of past data, current data, and future outlook data and apply an analytical approach to your farm, get in touch with Landus.

Sensors

AgZen, Corteva Team up on AI-Powered, Retrofit Sprayer Tech

Farmer Feedback

Tips And Tech Tools To Take The Sting Out Of Harvesting A Highly Variable Corn Crop

More harvest 2025 content:

Survey Says: Smart Farming Has Big Impact On U.S. Farms, And There’s Room for More

The next big thing?

New 2026 Balers and Hay Tools Launched By Case IH, John Deere, New Holland, And Vermeer

John Deere intros V452M Round Baler with stepped-up automation features

New Holland rolls out Roll-Belt 1 Series Balers

Vermeer launches fleet of new baler and hay tools for 2026

Farm Drone News: AgEagle Multispectral Sensor, GPS Satellite Launched and Rantizo Spins Off Software

AgEagle Aerial Systems Unveils New RedEdge-P Green Camera

Dutch Startup Launches Largest GPS Network for Drones, Tractors

Missouri Doctoral Student Says Drones Are Fine Tool for Crop Scouting

Rantizo Spin-Off American Autonomy Inc. Says It Can Close the Spray Drone Data Loop

Tech News: Bonsai Robotics Adds Farm-ng, Case IH Creates AI-Powered Parts Tool, Lindsey Launches TowerWatch

Bonsai Robotics Acquires Electric Robot Startup Farm-ng

Case IH Debuts AI-powered Visual Search Tool for Equipment Parts

Lindsay Releases TowerWatch Alignment Monitoring System

Meet The Forge: Kelly Hills Unmanned Puts New Spin on Ag Tech Field Testing

John Deere-Sentera Tie Up: Here’s What We Know So Far

John Deere Challenge: Watch a New York Tech Journalist Farm 20 Acres of Corn for $20 Profit

Drone and Smart Sprayer Combo Targets, Brings The Boom Down On Weeds

Smart Harvest: How One Farmer Is Hitting Harvest Windows, Helping Others With Grain Cart Tech

Yamaha Ag Q&A: When Can Growers Buy Farm Robots? North America Rollout Explained

New Holland Joins The Smart Sprayer Revolution With IntelliSense Automation

Tech On the Farm: McArthur Ag Ventures Flips The Script On Traditional VRA

Data-based Decisions

John Deere Details Model Year 2026 Updates, New Machine Capabilities and Technology Features

Dalton Dilldine: Next-Generation Producer Follows in His Father's Footsteps

John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

Market Research Firm: Autonomous Tractor Segment To Grow 25% By 2030

A Farmer Can Dream, Right? Tesla Robots As the Farm Labor Force of the Future?

Tech News: Purdue Researchers Use AI to Predict Corn Yields, Solix Robot Enjoys Successful Debut and more

Equipment Expert: Comb Through Your Combine To Ensure Uptime And Performance

Machinery and Tech News: CropX Acquisition, See and Spray Update, New GSI Grain Dryers

EarthOptics, Pattern Ag Combine Forces On Next-Level Soil Data Analytics

Machinery and Tech News: John Deere Expands Tillage, New Kioti RX40, New Holland Combine Release, and More

Technology News: BASF Adds Spray Timer to xarvio, Case IH Expands Tillage and Tech Offerings, and more

Inside InnerPlant’s Farmer-Led Investment Run and Why It’s Better Than Traditional VC

Landus’ Secret Weapon: Military Grade AI Tech Connects Farm Data Dots