John Deere’s executive team reaffirmed its Smart Industrial strategic framework, highlighting developments across its technology stack — including automation — during an investor day on Dec. 8 at the New York Stock Exchange.
John Deere CEO, John May, opened the investor day, highlighting the progress the ag giant has made in expanding its digital capabilities, as part of its Smart Industrial strategy. Launched in June 2020, the 10-year strategy focuses on John Deere’s production systems, technology stack, and lifecycle solutions across its production and precision ag, small ag and turf, construction and forestry businesses.
“We’ve now connected over 1 million machines. Our Operations Center covers 500 million engaged acres, and our portfolio of solutions and levels of customer adoption have grown across every production system. We’ve created a robust infrastructure that connects us to our customers, giving us the opportunity to accelerate the benefits of automation and autonomy across production systems,” May elaborated.
He added, “Importantly, we’ve also laid the groundwork for a new business model that can help our customers adopt and benefit from technology more quickly. Now, as we look ahead to the second half of the decade, we’ve refined our leap ambitions to guide us through the next phase of our journey.”
John Deere stock closed at $466.35 the day of the investor day, more than 200% higher than its stock price at the launch of the Smart Industrial strategy, according to Google data.
John Deere’s automation push
John Deere has a long history of investing in technology, including its 2017 acquisition of Blue Technologies, but the Smart Industrial strategy is boosting growth in automation and software-as-a-service (SaaS) products, executives shared. The ag company offers a range of automated or partially automated tractors, combines, and vehicles, designed to help farmers produce more and waste less.
The S7 and X9 Series combines feature automated ground speed and harvest settings that leverage “real-time data and predictive algorithms to adjust settings and speeds automatically,” reducing grain loss and the need for manual work, explained Deanna Kovar, president of John Deere’s worldwide agriculture and turf division and production and precision ag, during her portion of the investor presentation.
“These technology solutions help combines run at full capacity, even with newer operators behind the wheel. And it’s only possible because of the technology stack at John Deere. The tech uses satellite imagery ingested into the John Deere Operations Center, fused with onboard cameras to proactively operate the combine for the density of the crop that is in front of it. Without the infrastructure of Operations Center and the history it has of the field’s terrain, knowing the height of the crop would be much more difficult. This technology lightens the load, reduces fatigue, and helps everyone perform at their best, which is critical when skilled labor is hard to find, and timing is everything,” she elaborated.
John Deere is also “combining existing elements of [its] enterprise technology stack with targeted investments and customization to support automation,” said Justin Rose, president of worldwide agriculture and turf division and small ag and turf for John Deere.
“For example, a driver can use auto path to define the optimal way to navigate through the field. Our weave automation technology then creates the perfect bale by using a baler-integrated steering mechanism to automatically and precisely fill the bale chamber side-to-side, which eliminates the need to manually weave while driving. Speed automation automatically stops the tractor when the bale wrapping begins, and gate automation automatically opens and closes the baler tailgate for bail ejection,” Rose elaborated.
John Deere develops tech for the Brazilian market
John Deere is also investing in innovation with a focus on specific markets, like Brazil. Earlier this year, John Deere hosted an investor day at its research facility in Indaiatuba, Brazil, where executives highlighted the growth opportunity in the country, as AgTechNavigator previously reported.
John Deere’s 230 M Sprayer is the first launch in a series of products that were “built in Brazil for Brazil’s rugged terrain and fast coverage,” Kovar noted. The 230 M sprayer was designed for individual nozzle control and automatically “shuts off individual nozzles to prevent overspray and overlap,” she added.
John Deere’s See & Spray technology precisely applies herbicide using AI and its Starlink-based connectivity platform, JDLink Boost, both launched in Brazil this year. Last month, the ag giant celebrated a milestone for See & Spray, reporting that the service saved farmers more than 31 million gallons of herbicide mix in the 2025 harvest, as AgTechNavigator previously reported.
“Crop protection is a major expense there, with Brazilian sprayers running on average 14 spray passes per year, compared to just three for corn or soy in the US, and crop product protection products make up about 30% of total annual costs in the Cerrado region,” Kovar elaborated.
She added, “Bottom line, John Deere is helping Brazilian soybean farmers grow more and spend less while making sure every minute counts. If we look at a model farm with 7,400 acres in Mato Grosso with a double crop operation of soy, then corn, using these technologies, the customer has the potential to experience an incremental profit per acre of $115 annually, $43 in savings, and $72 in additional revenue, considering Brazil has approximately 50 million acres of double crop agriculture. If all of these acres were utilizing deer technologies, the estimated value creation is over $5 billion.”
