A new partnership between Corteva and John Deere is making planting season a more enjoyable, seamless process for some U.S. corn and soybean growers in 2025.
The companies are automating a process many row-crop growers historically jotted down in a notebook or, more recently, stored on a USB flash drive – their planting prescriptions.
The partners, who are integrating the digital and onboard capabilities of the John Deere Operations Center with the agronomic expertise and analysis of Corteva, can deliver field-by-field planting prescriptions direct to farmers’ equipment via the cloud and a wireless connection.
Andy Fabin, who participated in the partners’ 2024 pilot program and signed on again this season, says when he or an employee drives into the field boundary, the display in the tractor cab will pop up with the work plan for that field. The farmer accepts the work plan, and all the information will populate into the display and they are ready to plant.
“That’s one of the beauties of this – I don’t have to rely on the operator to know anymore exactly what hybrid is supposed to go into that field,” says Fabin, who’s based near Indiana, Pa. “That information has been preplanned and put into the computer. I don’t have to worry that, ‘whoops, I keyed in the wrong information.’ I know it’s going to be correct.”
Correct Data From The Get-Go
Good data about which hybrid or variety is going into a field sets the grower up for season-long success from the start, notes Trenton Brisby, North America agronomy innovation manager for Corteva .
“We’re able to auto-create a work plan for the grower now, something we had not been able to do before,” Brisby says. He adds that the work plans can be based on a flat seeding rate or a variable rate prescription. Either way, the goal is to place every seed where it can perform up to its maximum yield potential.
Lindsey Pollock, agronomy collaboration manager for John Deere, says information the work plan delivers helps streamline the time and effort it takes for growers to start planting. “We know they’re in a hurry, that they want to get that seed in the ground. The [technology] is reducing the time and mistakes that could happen within those work plans,” Pollock says.
That was true for Fabin, who says the work plans improved the planting accuracy on his farm ten-fold last season.
“Having the information delivered wirelessly really made a difference,” he reports. “If we had to travel 15 miles back to the office to get something and bring it back to the field, I mean, that’s hours that the planter could be sitting. And to be honest, it wasn’t going to happen. We were going to go into the field, plant and fix it later.”
A lot of farmers find themselves dealing with that same issue or a similar one during planting season, says Corbin Crownover, Pioneer sales representative.
“Every year we’ve had cases where the same seed corn hybrid could be named three different ways in the monitor, so we’d have to sort that out and get the information adjusted at the end of the year before we could do anything with the data,” Crownover recalls. “When we can make the [hybrid] numbers all accurate the way they should be, it makes things easier for all of us in the post-harvest review and analysis.”
How The Process Works
The basic process of building the work plan involves a handful of steps, according to Brisby, who outlined the steps for Farm Journal in a brief discussion.
First, the Pioneer sales representative works with the grower to develop a hybrid and variety placement plan for each field, Brisby says.
Next, the representative then connects with the John Deere Operations Center to make a work plan for each field, using either flat or variable seeding rates. Then, the grower is contacted to review the plan.
“Once they give the representative permission, the rep can then push the work plan direct to the equipment monitor,” Brisby says. “When the grower goes to the field to plant they get a pop up on their monitor screen that says, ‘You have a new work plan. Do you want to accept this?’ The grower can say ‘yes,’ and then start planting.”
The grower can also answer no, in case he needs to use a different hybrid or variety in a field. If needed, the operator can load the new seed information into the system manually.
However, Crownover says the grower’s seed sales representative can load multiple varieties and hybrids into the system, so they are included in the original work plan. This gives the farmer the ability to switch between seed products without having to go through a manual step. “We’re able to fine-tune seed selection and placement so farmers can feel more confident that their fields are going to be planted as prescribed,” Crownover says.
Technology Needed To Participate
In some cases, farmers who might want to participate in the partners’ program lack the equipment or are unable to wirelessly send and receive data.
“This is where we really believe strengthening the relationship and collaborating comes into place between Pioneer and John Deere,” Brisby says. “Working together, we can make sure the customer is able to get what they need.”
Fabin says he appreciated being able to work with Corteva and John Deere in the pilot program. “I appreciate all this technology, as a small business owner,” he says. “Capital is something we really have to manage, and these partnerships are a way for me to leverage the equipment we’ve already got. If we can reduce inputs whether seed, fertilizer or chemicals it’s good for us and is why I partner with these two companies.”
For 2025, John Deere and Corteva are expanding the pilot program to additional U.S. farmers before rolling out the program on a more widespread basis, which the companies anticipate for 2026.
Your Next Read: Corn on Corn Takes Root As Farmers Look for Profits
