From 21st to 28th February, Waldersey Farms Managing Director Mark Hall joined 38 others on an extraordinary trip across the United States, visiting the heart of John Deere’s manufacturing and innovation operation.
The group, made up of John Deere representatives, dealers and 30 farmers from across the UK, began in Chicago before heading to East Moline, Illinois, home to John Deere’s world headquarters. There they toured the combine harvester factory and construction equipment facility, getting a close-up look at the scale and precision behind one of agriculture’s most iconic brands.
From Illinois the group flew north to Waterloo, Iowa, where the famous large tractor factory gave them a front-row view of the production line for the John Deere 9RX and 8 Series tractors, seeing where the machines that work Waldersey Farm’s fields are built.
The final leg took the group south to Texas for the Commodity Classic show in San Antonio, followed by a visit to the John Deere Technology Centre near Austin. This was where the trip truly came into its own. The group saw the launch of the new high-horsepower 8R and 8RX range, covering 440 to 540 horsepower, and witnessed first-hand how rapidly See and Spray technology is advancing. Originally developed for broad-acre arable crops, the system uses cameras and machine learning to identify and target individual weeds, significantly reducing herbicide use across a growing number of crops.
The moment that perhaps best summed up the direction of travel came when the group watched a tractor cultivating a field with no one at the wheel. Tractor and implement settings adjusted remotely from a smartphone!
“It was a fantastic opportunity,” said Mark. “Not just to see the technology first-hand, but to spend time with other farmers and come away with a clearer sense of what will work for us here at Waldersey Farms.”
