A few months ago, John Deere CEO John May was the keynote speaker at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. While Deere has been an attendee of the show over the last 5 years, this was the first time an Ag Tech company was ever a keynote speaker presenting on the main stage. During the presentation both the CEO and other Deere representatives lectured on how technology overall is changing the way we grow food.
“…What you may not be aware of is how we’ve been leading innovation for 186 years. It began when our founder, John Deere, invented the first self-scouring steel plow. This cultivated some of the most productive land in the U.S.”, May stated regarding Deere’s long history.
Though Deere may have started with the plough and on the farm, it has expanded its company into road building, earth moving, and even lawn and garden. It deals with machines as small as lawn mowers, and as big as giant mining trucks – offering parts, service, and technology for all of it.
However, reflecting on this, May said, “At that time, the bigger the equipment was, the more efficient it was in a field, building a highway, or at a construction site. This is fundamentally changing. Today, farming, construction, and road building are less about the size of the machines and more about technology, intelligence, and sustainability, both economic and environmental.”
This goes along with Deere’s Leap Ambitions strategy, which it released at the beginning of 2021. This program is John Deere’s sales and marketing strategy, with benchmarks of success set on 2026 and 2030.
The goals of this strategy are basically meant to increase the company’s market share through aggressive development of connectivity and energy saving technologies. It plans to offer lines of fully electric and autonomous machinery in its ag, road building, and earth moving sectors, with a hope of more than 20 hybrid models by 2026. Deere did release its first fully autonomous Ag tractor just last year, as well as the 8R Series just this year, so they are making some progress.
Through connectivity itself, Deere believes it can increase sustainability and revenue for itself and its customers. And the technology would seem to suggest this is more than plausible.
Deere’s largest goal by far, is to have 1.5 million connected machines by 2026, and demonstrate a near no carbon power solution that same year. It also projects sales for recurring revenue to hit 10% by 2030, and growth of 50% in its re-manufactured revenue that same year. And so far – even despite any issue, Deere has been doing particularly well these last few years if you are to judge by that alone.
It has not quite fully realized all its goals yet, but each year and progress report so far, does see it making some progress towards those goals. In the last few years, John Deere has also made a number of acquisitions that seem to keep these goals in focus – specifically with a few automation companies and changes in its precision planter section.
As reported in Successful Farming, CEO Mays stated at CES, “These tractors aren’t concept vehicles. They’re real and are being used on farms today,” May says. “If this sounds like a lot of technology, it is, but this is more than just the technology. This is about our customers, farmers, construction crews, and road builders. They’re the ones who do the work every single day of every single year to provide for all of us.
“We’re going to show you how our technology is helping one of our key customer segments, farmers, execute their jobs more efficiently and sustainably,” May continues. “I know that some of you are wondering why should you care about farmers when they represent less than 2% of the U.S. population? It’s farmers from across the world who undertake the enormous task of growing the food, fuel, and fiber we all need. They are ensuring that we not only have what we need today, but that future generations do too. This requires taking care of one of the most precious resources we have: the land.”
Recyclability, sustainability, and connectivity are the mantra for Deere’s future growth plans. And it is going to be amazing to watch how this technology further unfolds.
