Farmers have long self-segmented solely on the paint color of their favorite brands of farming equipment.
Oh, you’re a green guy? You prefer John Deere tractors, combines and sprayers.
Or maybe you overheard someone make an offhand remark that your farm is “all red.” That’s not a shot at your political party affiliation. It means Case IH is your preferred brand of equipment.
No matter how you slice it, if you spend any time hanging around farmers it’s clear: they value loyalty and relationships. These long-standing, dyed-in-the-wool equipment allegiances do not die fast. They’re passed down like coveted family heirlooms from grandfather, to father, to son and daughter, and so on.
It’s rather fitting then that AGCO Corporation, a major farm equipment player long left out of these pigment-based affinity groups, has signaled another evolution in its go-to-market strategy.
HOW IS AGCO SHIFTING GEARS?
The company is planting its flag as the farmer-first, mixed-fleet leader for aftermarket and OEM precision ag technology and data solutions .
This new game plan correlates with what AGCO has been up to of late: The Duluth, Ga.-based manufacturer built its precision technologies segment via big dollar acquisitions, the same way Manchester City football club built its Premier League soccer dynasty.
AGCO acquired aftermarket solutions innovators such as Precision Planting (2017) and more recently Trimble (2023), the latter being the single largest ag tech acquisition by dollar amount to date. Trimble cost AGCO upward of $2 billion, to be exact. The company has a storied history of acquiring machinery brands since its inception in the 1990s.
That’s all a long way to say that today, this AGCO – a legacy equipment company most known for its Gleaner combines and RoGator self-propelled sprayer series – says it no longer gives a rat’s you-know-what the color of equipment farmers want to use.
OK, so that’s not entirely true. The company still intends to sell plenty of machines from its family of large equipment brands such as Fendt, Massey Ferguson and others, to farmers.
But when it comes to precision ag technology, AGCO is done rowing upstream against the green and the red guys. Now it’s time to play nice and make sure the only kid in the sandbox AGCO says it cares about – the farmer – is content.
That means taking a different approach: Gone are the days, in AGCO leadership’s minds, when you must buy new to get the latest and greatest technology. As long as the equipment is 10 years old or newer, you can bolt this aftermarket kit onto your tractor and experience similar smart farming capabilities as the guy up the road who just plunked down half a million on a brand new 2024 model.
According to AGCO, there are a lot of users who see value in the hole it’s trying to fill: a brand agnostic technology partner. Its recently unveiled PTx Trimble, AGCO’s newly imagined precision ag tech brand, intends to be just that for farmers going forward.
SETTING THE SCENE
The company detailed its new tactics last week at its 2024 Tech Days event, held at Ade Farm, a 3,300-acre soybean and wheat operation outside Salina, Kan., that runs its own mixed fleet of machines and is a loyal AGCO customer.
AGCO says globally it has 55,000 active users across 158,000 connected ag machines planting, spraying and harvesting across 84 million acres worldwide annually.
“It’s about having one comprehensive solution across all brands,” says Corey Buchs, senior director – data cloud, PTx Trimble. “We see an opportunity, a missing piece in the market we think will help our farmers by helping them manage their operations in a mixed fleet environment, regardless of make, model or age of the machine.”
FULL CYCLE AUTONOMY – COMING SOON
The concept on display at Ade Farm was visually intriguing: laser precise planters equipped with the latest fertilizer application technologies, smart sprayers that can target tiny weeds in a field full of crops and driverless tractors pulling tillage tools and grain carts. It was all there to showcase the potential of upgraded autonomous machines in an ag environment challenged by labor woes along with razor-thin profit margins.
Even the farm office data management process – shown in a small but spacious converted shipping container replete with flat screen monitors and multiple computing terminals – was accounted for.
At each stop, product managers in crispy white polo shirts made their presentations as the various machines worked autonomously off in the distance. It would have been nice to get closer to the machines, and you can bet farmers will want to look inside the cab and see some of the components of these aftermarket kits up-close before they buy, but apparently that would have triggered the safety features on the autonomous tech, stopping the machines dead in their tracks.
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