One of the people I spoke with at the National Farm Machinery Show was Kayla Reynolds, John Deere AMS. I asked her to give us an overview of the Ag Management Solutions division at John Deere. It’s a bigger operation than I thought. For example she says they’ve got about 250 people working in AMS in Des Moines. That includes engineering, testing, supply management, marketing, customer support and accounting.

Kayla says that AMS is all about creating solutions that help farmers better manage their business. It’s all about efficiency in the field. She says that their main focus is on agriculture but that they’re looking at some new opportunity areas like construction, forestry and even lawn and garden. Mowing straight lines on a golf course would be one good example of a precision application. I think it’s interesting how often new technology is developed for an agricultural purpose but is then used in other industries and precision is no different.

One of the main new products that Kayla talked to growers about is the Intelligent Total Equipment Control (ITEC) system they have for 8030 wheeled tractors which takes auto guidance to the next level by adding functions like auto turning at the end of a pass.

You can listen to my interview with Kayla here: Kayla Reynolds Interview (5 min. mp3)