JOHN DEERE ACQUIRES

John Deere have announced the acquisition of Sentera, a provider of remote imagery solutions for agriculture headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The manufacturer said the acquisition " . . will advance the capabilities of John Deere’s existing technology offerings, providing farmers and ag service providers with a more comprehensive set of tools to generate and use data to make decisions that improve farm profitability, efficiency, and sustainability."
 
Chris Winkler, director of digital software and solutions at John Deere, said, “Combining Sentera’s imagery capabilities with the John Deere Operations Center will enable farmers and trusted advisors to seamlessly gather and integrate agronomic data, understand real-time conditions, and turn data into insights that drive decisions in the field throughout the growing season.”
 
Sentera’s cameras are compatible with most major drone platforms and enable farmers and crop scouts to quickly and efficiently capture high-resolution data at scale. 
 
Drones equipped with the technology fly over fields at high speeds and generate high-resolution images. These images are processed with Sentera’s FieldAgent application to identify the exact location of specific weeds and generate a weed map. This map becomes a targeted prescription for how much product a farmer needs to load into their sprayer, helping minimise waste. Once the prescription is generated, it can be wirelessly sent to compatible equipment via the John Deere Operations Center.
 
Sentera say they will continue to supply cameras directly to drone manufacturers for integration into their products, as well as sell to farmers, agronomists, ag retailers, and other users. The John Deere Operations Center will continue to be open for other drone imagery providers for integration, as well, ensuring customers continue to have choices on the solutions that work best for their operation.