The Climate Corporation, a subsidiary of Monsanto Company, has signed new agreements for Deere and Company to acquire the Precision Planting LLC equipment business and to “enable exclusive near real-time data connectivity between certain John Deere farm equipment and the Climate FieldView™ platform.” The agreements represent the industry’s first and only near “real-time in-cab wireless connection to John 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,” said 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, said, “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.”
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. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities to the extent required.
The Climate Corporation held a telephone press conference this morning with Stern, Climate senior vice president for agronomic services John Raines, and Illinois farmer Steve Moffitt, who just heard about the new agreements this morning and says he is thrilled with it.
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