John Deere released its Q3 2025 earnings on Aug. 14, reporting declines across most of its business, as tariffs cut into margins and growers deployed capital more cautiously due to market volatility.
John Deere’s production and precision ag portfolio — which includes its digital solutions and various tractors, harvesters, sprayers, planting equipment, etc. — led the losses.
Net sales for the OEM’s production and precision ag business declined to $4.273 billion in Q3 2025, down from $5.099 billion in Q3 2024, the company stated in a report. This cut into operating profits, which came in at $580 million, compared to $1.162 billion for the same quarter last year.
Despite these declines, John Deere’s bundles of precision ag technologies and digital solutions are a bright spot, executives shared on a call with investors.
John Deere sold 21,000 precision ag bundles globally since launching last year, which brought in 2,400 customers into the company’s Operations Center, Josh Beale, director of investor relations, at John Deere, explained.
John Deere’s satellite connectivity service, JDLink, is also growing beyond its initial market of Brazil. The OEM focused on Brazil first, since “70% of the acres in Brazil lack enough reliable cell coverage,” Beale noted.
“We have also been taking orders [of JDLink] in the US since January, and went live this summer with availability in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Across those four geographies, we have just crossed 1,000-units ordered, and combining that with South American demand, we surpassed 5,000 global orders in this first year of availability,” he added.
Additionally, John Deere is investing in AI to process the large amount of data that it collects from its various machines and devices in order to provide growers actionable insight to improve operations, Cory Reed, president of worldwide agriculture and turf division and production and precision ag for Americas and Australia for John Deere, said.
“We are sitting now at the 480-million-acre mark, multiple passes across that. Farmers who want to be able to use that data [and] compare to others ... to inform their decisions going forward will have access to those tools, and it is something that we are investing in today,” Reed elaborated.
Tariffs hit John Deere’s business
Overall, John Deere’s net income declined to $1.289 billion in Q3 2025, dropping from $1.724 billion in Q3 2024 for a 26% decline, the company reported. Net incomes also fell to $3.962 billion for the three quarters of 2025, compared to $5.855 billion in the same period last year, a 32% decline.
The losses were largely attributed to macroeconomic conditions, like tariffs, which compressed operating margins and created uncertainty, executives shared.
Growers are taking “a measured approach to capital investment,” with John Deere’s largest market — North America — being “the most affected by trade dynamics,” Beale said.
“Tariff costs in the quarter were approximately $200 million, which brings us to roughly $300 million in tariff expenses year to date. Based on tariff rates in effect as of today, our forecast for the pretax impact of tariffs in fiscal 2025 is now adjusted to nearly $600 million. The primary drivers for the change from last quarter are increased tariff rates on Europe, India, steel, and aluminum,” Beale elaborated.
Amid these headwinds, Deere adjusted its full-year 2025 guidance to $4.75-5.25 billion in net income, a slight decline from its guidance in Q2 2025, which was $4.75-5.50 billion. John Deere’s stock declined on the quarterly earnings, trading around $480, approximately a 7% drop from the previous day.
