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“MICROMANAGING AT THE PLANT
LEVEL MEANS THAT THE GOAL IS
TO COUNT EVERY SEED, THE GOAL
OF SPRAYING IS TO MAKE EVERY
DROP COUNT, AND THE GOAL OF
HARVESTING IS TO MAKE EVERY
GRAIN COUNT.”
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“When we talk sustainability, that means that our
technology will help farmers be even better stewards
of the land, reducing waste and helping them do more
with less – and as it speaks to financial sustainability,
being able to have a profitable farm to pass along to
the next generation.”
John Deere’s Smarter Equipment and Better
Decisions precision ag strategy is comprised
of three main areas:
•
plant level management,
•
simplified farm management, and
•
enabling data-driven decisions.
The focus when it comes to plant level management
is helping farmers become better micromanagers
through the use of sensors, machine learning, robotics
and automation.
“When you think about micromanagement, you
generally think that it isn’t a good thing – but in
agriculture, it really is. We want to be able to monitor
and control millions of seeds that are planted on the
farm in a way to optimize things for the farmer to
increase productivity and precision,” said Dickman.
Simplified farm management refers to a farmer’s ability
to access the right information, at the right time, and
from anywhere – including and especially in the cab of
a tractor.
“We know that most farmers aren’t sitting behind a
desk in a command center watching a large monitor
all day – in reality, they’re probably in the cab or out
in a pickup truck. For us, we need to simplify that
farm management process, which means a mobile
experience that allows them to manage his or her
farm from their phone,” stated Dickman. “We’re
investing heavily in this technology today, and you’re
going to see significant changes in the future.”
The third pillar in John Deere’s precision ag strategy
is to enable better decisions by harnessing the power
of data and analytics.
“The promise of precision ag has been that as a farmer,
I can learn from the data that comes from my farm. I
think we haven’t quite delivered on that promise yet,”
said Dickman.
He explains that data is still too fragmented and
difficult to navigate.
“We know that as farmers, you don’t want to be a data
scientist – you want to be a decision maker. That’s
where we’re really focused on how to surface the
value from the data in an automated and simplified
way so that you aren’t required to dig for it yourselves,”
he added.
In today’s digital age of farming, John Deere’s strategy
is focusing on connecting equipment with decision
makers and partners, across the entire production
system.
“Data is really the fuel of our strategy – not the
exhaust. We need to utilize the data that is coming
in,” stated Dickman. “The investments we’ve made in
connectivity are really the backbone of the strategy.
Our strategy for smarter equipment is that we can
leverage spatial intelligence from other passes as
well as other resources – that’s going to bring that
automation intelligence down to the equipment where
it can complement our onboard sensors to create the
smartest, most automated machines possible.”
Dickman discussed how data is fueling smarter
equipment across the entire production system from
soil prep to harvest.
“The fusion of off-board data, spatial intelligence and
real-time, on-board sensor data is the fuel that’s going
to create smarter equipment that creates more value
for our customers,” he said.