John Deere
Profile
John Deere (JD) is a trademark of Deere & Company (Illinois, USA). John Deere is the largest manufacturer of agricultural machinery and equipment worldwide and also the leading manufacturer in Europe in regards to production and technology development. There is a strong focus on smart farming, which uses satellite systems, wireless communication and big data analysis to increase crop yields in a profitable and sustainable way to address the needs of food safety and security of a growing world population
Competences & Capabilities
The participation in EIT Food will be coordinated and managed by the John Deere European Technology Innovation Center (JD ETIC) which opened in 2010. It is one of the most important investments of the company in the last years and demonstrates the commitment to innovation and to Europe. JD ETIC coordinates all RDI projects and university relationships of John Deere’s European units. As one of its key pillars it extends John Deere’s partnerships with public research institutions, NGOs (CEMA, VDMA, VDI) and other companies in Europe. Key focus areas are:
- Sustainable technologies
- ICT for automation
- Sensor technologies
- Machine knowledge systems.
Expertise related to the EIT Food Strategic Pillars
An important aspect of food safety and security is the full traceability in the complete value chain. This includes correct and seamless documentation of all production steps. A missing piece is the real-time measurement of soil and crop constituents during the cropping season and during harvesting operations.
Therefore, John Deere plans to develop smart sensors for constituents and to integrate these sensors into our machinery. We will enable this by close cooperation with sensor manufacturers as well as universities and other partners of EIT Food.
Contact: Peter Pickel, Prof. Dr. PickelPeter@JohnDeere.com
John Deere is promoting and communicating the positive impact of smart farming technologies on the environment and on food safety and security in many public events, fairs and media. Examples are:
- European farm shows like Agritechnica (Hannover), SIMA (Paris), EIMA (Bologna), FIMA (Zaragoza)
- Field Days (e.g. DLG field days) • Articles in Ag journals like ‘Profi’ and our customer journal ‘The Furrow’
- International Conferences like VDI Ag Engineering Conference, Dublin Tech Summit, World Mobile Congress
Contact: Fabienne Seibold SeiboldFabienne@JohnDeere.com
John Deere has a well-established professional distribution channel. Start-up companies typically miss distribution opportunities and connection to their potential customers. This opens up many opportunities for potential cooperation between John Deere and young entrepreneurs starting with the joint development of smart solutions up to the joint marketing and sales efforts through the existing JD channel.
Contact: Carsten Struve, Dr. StruveCarsten@JohnDeere.com
Education
John Deere plans to develop, support and deliver comprehensive education programs to mainstream the application of smart and precision farming technology in the primary food production sector. This includes:
- online classes
- distance learning modules
This requires a close collaboration with universities and other stakeholders in educational areas, which are not fully defined yet.
Contact: Thomas Engel, Dr. habil. EngelThomas@JohnDeere.com