American Farming Automation Continues to Advance

Precision agriculture has come a long way in recent years and will continue to develop quickly. Matt Olson, Precision Ag Manager for John Deere, says off-farm folks might not know how much automation there is on American farms today.

“A lot of people that are on a farm don't realize how much automation is taking place on the farm. When we look at the past ten years, we've accelerated the amount of automation of these machines. So, as the automotive industry talks about how they have self-driving cars, we've had self-driving tractors since 2002. The farmer had to be in the cab, but that tractor or combine or sprayer drove itself to the field to maintain that production that the farmer was looking at.”

“The farmer has got a lot on their plate, right, and they've already made a lot of investment in precision ag. They're using auto track, they're using section control, so they have the foundational technology that they need. I want them to think about how they can get new value from what they already have without even needing to buy a whole lot of new things. A lot of the updates, a lot of enhancements are software-oriented, so they're easy for a farmer to get their hands on, try it, experience the value, and make the decision whether or not that's something that they want to invest in.”