John Deere Acquires GUSS Automation
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
John Deere recently announced the acquisition of GUSS, short for Global Unmanned Spray System. The orchard spraying company is part of John Deere’s larger push to advance technology and automation in particular in high value crops. Deere’s Sean Sundberg says they hope to lead the way with acquisitions like GUSS to build trust with growers in this technology for trees, vines and vegetables.
Sundberg… “ Everybody's trying autonomy, everybody's trying to do this. But it just hasn't seen a lot of things that are super impactful come to market, and that's why we're investing where we are in trying to bring that. So where I think that the corn and bean, large row crops, cotton, sugar, all of that have gone through that technology adoption curve at a higher rate, maybe. It's likely due to the fact that we just haven't had that one big thing hit where the growers have all the confidence in the world that if I implement that in my business, it's gonna have a dramatic impact. The high value crop grower, a lot of hesitancy to adopt it because they don't know if that startup is gonna be there nine months from now. And it leads to saying I'm gonna do what I know is gonna work to protect my profits, and that may or may not be adopting technology immediately.”
Started in 2017, GUSS is a leader in autonomous spraying technology.
