John Deere Puts Ag Tech Center Stage at CES 24
Walk the hushed aisles of the CES show and it becomes abundantly clear: the world of tech is evolving at breakneck speed. Concepts considered pie-in-the-sky a couple years ago have rocketed up the development curve. Farmers will not be left behind tending dog-eared notepads and dusty bins full of “sneaker drives.”
John Deere has maintained a notable presence at CES since 2019. This year it dubbed its massive CES exhibit “Dirt to Shirt,” presenting a full technology-enabled cotton production cycle. The main highlight was a fully autonomous 8R tractor that attendees controlled themselves with an iPhone. All from 1,300 miles away, over exhibit hall Wi-Fi.
“As I talk to people here at the show, many don’t have a thorough understanding of exactly where their food comes from,” said Joel Dawson, director, production and precision ag marketing for John Deere. “We have an opportunity as a large OEM in the agriculture, construction and forestry spaces to raise that voice and let everyone know the hard and sustainable work our farmers do each day.”
That educational opportunity begins with the driverless 8R tractor live streaming as it completes tillage tasks on John Deere’s test farm near Austin, Texas. The journey then continues through the lens of smart farming technology as it moves through the production cycle.
In the planting area, John Deere highlighted its new seed furrow sensing product, Furrow Vision. The camera-enabled tech “takes the eyes of the farmer and puts them right into the row unit of the planter,” according to Dawson. It opens an entire data set farmers can use to better understand, adjust to and capitalize on what’s happening in the seed furrow.
A half section of a 120’ carbon fiber spray boom showed the ecosystem of cameras, nozzles and Nvidia processing units that enable John Deere’s See & Spray application technology. John Deere says users are seeing up to a two-thirds reduction in herbicide usage versus broadcast spraying.
Next, a quick introduction to a massive cotton harvesting rig with all the artificial intelligence bells and whistles hammers home today’s farmers have plenty of skin in the digital revolution game.
The journey continues with a post-harvest “visit” to meet the family farmers at Bridgeforth Farms – the same folks who created the Deere t-shirts from their own cotton. A display there explained how Deere’s round baling solution as well as the combines’ ability to efficiently separate and save seeds from harvest – they make a good soil amendment or animal feed – contribute to more sustainable cotton production.
“It’s really resonating and it’s exciting, and it gives people a better perspective on how agriculture really works,” Dawson said.
2030 or bust?
While it was not implicitly spelled out at the CES booth, John Deere continues to embrace its goal of demonstrating a fully autonomous corn and soybean production cycle by 2030. Judging from the level of autonomy on display in Vegas, it’s a reasonable assumption John Deere will check that box.
“We’re showing autonomous tillage operating on an 8R tractor – that’s our starting point,” Dawson said. “We’re developing that technology, it’s in our customers’ hands today, and we’re going to continue to expand [upon] it. It’s a big change from where we are today, but we’re driving hard at making sure that happens.”
Sustainability Add-Ons
Operations Center users can now evaluate and opt into sustainability initiatives (some even generate revenue in exchange for data) right in the app via a drop-down tab. Field and machine data flows into whichever initiative the farmer chooses, saving them time on data entry. It also simplifies the task of sorting through all the options.
“It can take farmers literally days and sometimes even weeks to document field boundaries and in-field practices, so the extent to which we can make that process easier is a big win for our customers,” said Oriana Lisker Bosin, product manager, sustainability solutions.
A soon-to-be released Carbon Emissions Calculator was also shown in Las Vegas. Once available, farmers will be able to visualize the carbon emissions from their fields across the entire operation, and then benchmark against their peers to get a more contextual assessment of sustainability practice impacts.
“In five minutes, or even less, the farmer can see the carbon emissions of their fields and put that into context versus a field with fairly low N, tillage and cover crops, as well as against an average conventional field,” said Lisker Bosin.
John Deere was honored with a CES Innovation Award in the Sustainability, Eco-Design & Smart Energy category for its Operations Center Sustainability Tools. The company has captured five straight awards in the category, a trophy for every year at CES.
