Delivering precision solutions for every season—and across the globe
Precision ag represents a significant growth opportunity for AGCO. To understand why, it's helpful to understand the significant impact precision delivers for farmers. Farmers large and small may grow just one crop or manage multiple crops across large swaths of land. In these cases, even a small adjustment in seed placement or spray pressure can have a major impact on resource inputs and yield. By dramatically increasing precision, these tools empower farmers to use less, spend less and still achieve better results and profitability.
To maximize these benefits, we’re expanding our precision solutions to encompass all aspects of crop cycle management, from planting to fertilization to weed control and beyond. For example, our new Radicle Agronomics tools and Radicle Lab deliver fast, accurate and cost-effective results that take soil nutrition measurements to new levels. Soil testing is one of the most important agronomic processes on a farm. It heavily guides farmers’ decisions regarding fertilizer and seed inputs for the following growing season. The Radicle tools enable farmers and agronomists to discard manual, lengthy and error-prone processes. This innovation represents the first major change to the soil testing process in nearly 100 years.
The expansion of our precision solutions around the crop cycle is accelerated through our acquisitions of Appareo, Headsight and JCA Technologies in recent years. In 2023, we expanded our tech stack by signing an agreement to acquire digital assets from FarmFacts GmbH. FarmFacts provides management solutions that drive productivity and efficiency on farms. The acquisition increases our Farm Management Information Software offerings and software development capabilities, enabling us to better serve farmers’ data management needs.
We also launched AGCO Ventures, creating a formal approach to sourcing and funding new and early-stage technologies through investments in startup companies, venture funds, incubators, accelerators, higher education and research institutions. AGCO Ventures will support the accelerated development of critical capabilities and competencies in three strategic areas: information management and analytics, environmental and alternative fuel sources, and ag technology.
Combined, these initiatives and our industry-leading Precision Planting solutions will complement our planned joint venture (JV) with Trimble, in which we will acquire 85 percent interest in Trimble’s portfolio of agricultural assets and technologies. Upon close, the JV is expected to create an industry-leading, global mixed-fleet precision agriculture platform. We expect to close the transaction in the first half of 2024. Together with our Precision Planting portfolio of retrofit technologies, we can now accelerate our retrofit and OEM precision ag offerings to touch all brands, equipment types and farms, and span the entire crop cycle from land prep to planting and seeding to harvest.