The world’s largest farm-equipment manufacturer is buying two companies that make so-called precision planters, which are vital tools in the integration of Big Data into agriculture. Deere and Co announced a deal to buy Precision Planting from Monsanto a day after it said it would acquire Monosem, a European maker of precision planting equipment.
Variable rate applicators and planters allow growers to adjust seeding, fertilizer and pesticides to varying conditions in their fields to maximize yields and control production costs. Yield monitors on harvest equipment are another element along with spatial tracking of equipment to match crop “inputs” with the productive capacity of the land. Monsanto and Deere are rivals in Big Data services.
The value of the transaction between Monsanto subsidiary The Climate Corp and Deere was not disclosed. “Under the terms of the agreements, Deere will purchase Precision Planting while Climate will retain the digital agriculture portfolio that has been integrated into the Climate FieldView platform,” said Feedstuffs. Deere said one result will be faster connections between Deere equipment and the Fieldview platform.
Following its unsuccessful bid to acquire Syngenta, Monsanto has sought “to reposition itself as a business built on data science and services,” said Reuters. Monsanto is one of the world’s largest seed and chemical companies.