John Deere leapt onto the tech world’s biggest stage last year, unveiling its groundbreaking self-driving tractor to rave reviews from surprised tech leaders at the 2022 Consumer Technology CES show in Las Vegas. Just one year later, Deere & Co. Chairman and CEO John May delivered the keynote address spotlighting Deere’s ongoing progress in robotics […]
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John Deere leapt onto the tech world’s biggest stage last year, unveiling its groundbreaking self-driving tractor to rave reviews from surprised tech leaders at the 2022 Consumer Technology CES show in Las Vegas.Just one year later, Deere & Co. Chairman and CEO John May delivered the keynote address spotlighting Deere’s ongoing progress in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) at the gathering that bills itself as “The Most Influential Tech Event in the World.” That 2023 speech marked the first time in CES history that an ag company gave the Consumer Electronics Show keynote.This illustration shows the process John Deere’s groundbreaking ExactShot system uses to plant, fertilize and grow seeds. CREDIT DEERE & CO.And while it might have seemed that Deere had burst onto the AI scene in 2022 with its driverless 8R tractor, the Moline-based global equipment manufacturer has been changing the future of farming through innovation since John Deere invented the self-scouring plow 186 years ago, Deere’s board chairman told a receptive CES crowd.Modern-day Deere is continuing that tradition via “purpose-driven sustainability practices and advancements in technology” to address what Mr. May called “one of the world’s greatest challenges – feeding a growing global population.”For Deere team leaders like Kimberly D. Noe, “sustainability” is more than an industry buzzword and the mission and targets contained in the Leap Ambitions that Deere introduced in 2021 to measure its progress are more than a guidebook. “When we think about the Leap Ambitions, they are goals designed to impact economic volume and the sustainable value for our customers,” said Ms. Noe, Deere’s program manager of sustainability. “Really it’s important to look at it from other frames of mind and not just from a monetary perspective.”For example, she said, the goals are designed to ensure that for Deere customers “we really optimize their operation so that every hour, every drop, every seed, every pound, and every pass counts to make sure that we are delivering better outcomes for our customers with fewer resources.” According to Deere’s updated 2022 Sustainability Report, substantial progress has already been made in hitting those 2021 targets. Among the 2022 report highlights (released in 2023) are:
A 29% cumulative reduction of operational greenhouse gas emissions reported since 2017, far surpassing its original goal of 15%.
An 84% increase in waste recycling.
Surpassing its 2022 renewable electricity goal of 50%.
Just under half a million reported connected acres.
That last figure is particularly impressive in comparison to Deere’s overall target for acres engaged, Ms. Noe said. “We were looking to be at 1.5 million but the fact that we’re already a third there is pretty impressive,” Ms. Noe said.“When we look at engaged acres we have a goal of 400 million and we’re at 329 million engaged acres,” Ms. Noe explained. Then, when you add in “highly engaged acres and sustainably engaged acres as well, we’re well on our way of executing towards those (reduced) Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Ms. Noe added.What exactly are “engaged acres?” They are the number of unique acres on which John Deere’s Operation Center can document at least one pass made by a connected Deere machine in the past 12 months. “Highly engaged acres” could be the same acres as engaged acres, but they also must include multiple production steps and/or use of additional tools over the 12-month period. The highest level is “sustainably engaged acres,” which include highly engaged or connected acres that also incorporate two or more sustainable technology solutions or one or more sustainable practices over that 12-month period; say, for example, no till.“It’s a really high standard and as you think about the future I’m sure those will get even more interesting and continue to grow in size,” Ms. Noe said.
Sustainability a Deere passion
One constant in Deere’s sustainability quest besides tech breakthroughs is the commitment by the men and women at Deere who are creating the innovations that have also helped turn the ag giant into one of the leading technology companies in the nation.Take Ms. Noe. Like other Deere sustainability team members whom the QCBJ has spoken to in the past, Ms. Noe is deeply committed to the cause.“There’s a passion because we want to take care of the world collectively because there’s only one earth and that’s the cool part of this,” Ms. Noe said. “There’s only so many limited resources, so how do we do this the best so that, more importantly, we can give it to our children and our grandchildren.”Her commitment to today’s agricultural revolution isn’t all that surprising since Ms. Noe grew up on her family’s corn and soybean farm in Golden, Illinois, some 120 miles south of the Quad Cities. Still, the Future Farmers of America member said “If you would have told me I would have been doing sustainability when I graduated as an agricultural engineer I would have said I don’t even know what sustainability is.”If a young Ms. Noe would have been surprised, imagine what a farmer from 50-plus years ago would make of it all? “I think they would be amazed at how precision technology has positively impacted not only their yield but their bottom line overall,” Ms. Noe said. At last month’s annual Deere & Co. shareholders meeting, Mr. May focused on many of the sustainable technological innovations Deere has introduced into the marketplace, including last year’s fully autonomous 8R tractor – industry-first technology that can perform tillage work in the field without an operator in sight.Then there’s Deere’s innovative See & Spray Ultimate Sprayers which “use advanced camera technology and artificial intelligence to distinguish weeds from healthy crop, reducing the use of herbicides and improving yields.”And at January’s CES, the company also unveiled its breakthrough ExactShot plant technology. “Through a combination of the latest sensors and robotics, it applies starter fertilizer precisely to the seed as it is planted, at speeds up to 10 mph,” Mr. May said. “As a result, farmers can reduce the amount of starter fertilizer used by as much as 60% while maintaining speeds needed to get the job done on time.”Not everything Deere innovators are doing will go into production immediately or perhaps ever. Take, for example, the pair of Sustainable Concept Gators Deere unveiled at its signature John Deere Classic PGA golf tournament last year. A team of six Deere employees worked with Ford Motor Co.’s sustainable materials team to find ways to take waste streams and bio-based materials and byproducts and turn them into viable vehicle components. The Gators created from a collection of old bottles, fishing nets, recycled rubber, coconuts shells, soybeans and more have provided invaluable research and have produced more sustainable parts that already are in use today.
Breakthroughs across divisions
The technological seeds Deere is sowing don’t just benefit the environment and agriculture, either. The company is working to expand precision tools for construction, forestry and road building customers, Ms. Noe said. Among recent innovations is adding intelligent boost control (IBC) to Deere’s Tracked Harvester line.Deere’s small-turf customers also win through sustainable technology. This year, for example, the company introduced its first electric zero-turn mower, the John Deere Z370R. Promotional materials promise “up to 2 acres per charge, zero operating emissions, no engine noise and a quality of cut that’s second to none.”Also making its inaugural appearance at CES was John Deere’s fully electric excavator designed to reduce site noise, increase safety and productivity and eliminate emissions without compromising power or performance.Deere designed the excavator, which is powered by a Kreisel battery. “Our work with Kreisel – a company in which we acquired a majority position in 2022 – gives us access to patented battery technology that delivers high performance and a longer battery life,” Mr. May told Deere shareholders last month. “Kreisel also leverages charging technology that results in faster and lower-cost connections to the electrical grid, delivering even greater value to the customer.”While Deere has made big gains in battery electric equipment, the technology is not yet available to produce a battery that can handle what Deere’s massive machinery does. Until it is, the immediate focus is on switching from petrol-based fuels to bio-based fuel options such as ethanol, Ms. Noe said. What’s the advantage of that? “We’re replacing something that we’re taking from the ground, that’s petrodiesel, and using the commodities that our customers produce, and then turning them into fuel and then actually using that fuel in the equipment that they use to plant their crop,” Ms. Noe explained.Ms. Noe also emphasized other Deere partnerships that are helping drive the company’s sustainability revolution in other ways. That includes its agreement with agricultural education partner Iowa State University on an 80-acre demonstration farm near Ames.It will allow Deere and ISU to test different production styles than conventional agriculture and measure the outcome of different practices – for example cover crop or no till – to see how well they perform economically and from an agronomic perspective, she said. Those side-by-side comparisons will help Deere to “really understand those practices in a real world situation through trial and error,” she said. The partnership also allows Deere to do equipment demonstrations and provide teaching opportunities for employees, students, dealers and customers.There also is more to sustainability than increasing yields and profits, decreasing agriculture’s carbon footprint and feeding the world.
Sustainability has social side
Enhanced customer support, or what Ms. Noe called the “more of the social side of sustainability,” also is a critical element.“We’re allowing customers to perhaps have a more meaningful life and spend more time with their family instead of having to go and till,” she said. “Whether it’s attending their child’s baseball game or even more important allowing them to go and make other impactful business decisions that they might have had to delay in making.”It’s not just farmers, foresters and construction companies that win through Deere’s Leap Ambitions and growing tech stack. A big trend in the food world, Ms. Noe said, is traceability.Whether it’s commodities like corn and soybeans, avocados you pick up in the store or the apple you pick in a local orchard, how it’s farmed matters, she added. For example, consumer groups are increasingly requiring their suppliers – Deere’s customers – to show their farming processes and to share their carbon index. “I think the cool part behind this technology is that it really gives you something that is time stamped and, ‘more technology verified’ saying this is what we did.”In turn, that enables “our customers to say to their customers, ‘yes we have done the things and we have done it in a very sustainable manner and here’s the proof in our data set’,” she said. “It’s definitely exciting and there’s a big opportunity for our customers to show the great work they’ve done to be great stewards of the land.”In addition to making farmers more efficient through fewer passes, less seeds, fertilizer and herbicides, autonomous tractors are helping Deere’s customers cope with the ongoing farm labor shortage and significantly improving a farmer’s quality of life, Ms. Noe said.
