John Deere to Acquire Precision Planting; Climate Corp. to Connect to Deere Equipment

John Deere and The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto, have signed agreements for Deere to acquire Precision Planting LLC and to enable exclusive near real-time data connectivity between certain John Deere farm equipment and the Climate FieldView platform.

This agreement marks the industry's first and only near real-time in-cab wireless connection to Deere equipment by a third party.

"To maximize the value of digital agriculture, farmers need solutions for simple and seamless collection of in-field agronomic data," says Mike Stern, president and chief operating officer for The Climate Corporation. "As a result of these milestone agreements, farmers will experience the fastest, most frequent and highest resolution third-party connectivity between John Deere's equipment and the Climate FieldView platform."

John May, president, agricultural solutions and chief information officer at Deere, says, "The agreements we are announcing allow John Deere to extend the range of retrofit options available from Precision Planting to many more products and into new geographies. John Deere strengthens its position as the most open platform in the industry both in our equipment and the cloud-based data management solution known as the John Deere Operations Center."

The terms of the agreement state that Deere will purchase Precision Planting while Climate will retain the digital agriculture portfolio that has been integrated into the Climate FieldView platform. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities to the extent required.

"Our agreements enable farmers to combine the technology of John Deere equipment with Climate FieldView, the platform that offers farmers the broadest equipment connectivity backed by data science," says May. "This connectivity allows farmers to collect and directly share data to the Climate cloud, enables data visualization in the cab and supports the development of customized data science-driven insights."

"Strategic use of information is an important factor in successful agriculture," says May. "Today's actions demonstrate John Deere's ongoing investments to enhance the product and service solutions we offer our customers."The companies say customers will have the option to share their current and historical agronomic data between the John Deere Operations Center and the Climate FieldView platform and seamlessly execute agronomic prescriptions with John Deere equipment.

Update:

Representatives from Deere provided more detailed insight on the recent acquisition and agreements.

"Under the terms of this latest agreement, John Deere will acquire the majority of the assets of the Precision Planting equipment business including their facilities, and brand," notes Barry Nelson, John Deere - Agriculture & Turf Division.

It will also acquire the majority of Precision Planting's product portfolio, which includes all of its hardware, sensors, actuators and display systems. The Precision Planting leadership will be retained as will the majority of employees, relationships with dealers and OEM customers.

"Climate Corporation will maintain ownership of the FieldView app and cloud platform," says Nelson. "Climate Corporation will use John Deere's software connection, known as an API, to allow customers to send agronomic prescriptions from FieldView through John Deere Operations Center to their equipment in the field."

John Deere plans to provide FieldView customers with an enhanced in-cab connection.

"Deere will be focused on the next generation technology and how Deere integrates it; while Precision Planting will be thinking about every producer, every acre, every brand in the marketplace," says Cory Reed, Senior Vice President of John Deere's Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG).

The ISG team will take the lead on integrating Precision Planting into the John Deere portfolio.

The end goal is to provide farmers with solutions that easily integrate across their entire operation. "We're working to build the platform that connects farmers seamlessly and allows them to interact with those they choose to interact with no matter what the brand," says Reed. "For farmers who have older equipment to get the most value, you have to connect the entire system with this type of technology."

In addition, John Deere dealerships will have the opportunity to become premier dealers of Precision Planting. "They will not have Precision Planting by virtue of being a John Deere dealer," explains Reed. "We will maintain the separate premier dealership network of the independent Precision Planting dealerships that exist today."

And what about data. . .

"Climate retained the Climate Cloud," says Deanna Kovar, ISG Director of the Sales Channel and Customer Support. "Deere puts customers in control of their data. Our commitment to this remains unchanged. If a customer choose to share their data with Climate, we will make it easy through the in-cab connection or the software connection (API)."

This recent acquisition and agreement adds to the growing list of deals Deere has made recently to enhance its position in the ag equipment and solutions arena"Precision agriculture, a core business of John Deere, is enhanced with each of the transactions we have announced recently as they provide solutions to strengthen our position in several key areas," say Barry Nelson.On October 8, Deere announced the creation of SageInsights joint venture, which will focus on further developing DN2K's cloud software platform for ag retailers and others who provide consulting services to growers.

On November 2, an agreement to acquire Monosem, a precision planting company based in France, was announced by Deere. This buy will help Deere accelerate its market reach in precision planting equipment and add engineering expertise to further develop planting technology with a focus on helping customers increase their productivity.

Update:

Precision Planting will honor its long-term agreement with Case IH to supply planter components, according to Case IH rep Dan Danford.