Past, Present and Future of John Deere Precision Upgrades

Tony Kramer: Hi. I'm Tony Kramer, your host of The Agriculture Technology Podcast. I'm sitting down with agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. In this episode, I talk with Clint Chaffer about the background story of the John Deere precision upgrade kits. With that, let's dive into the show.

A few episodes back, we had episode 199, 201, and 202. We dove deep into the different precision upgrade kits that are available for planters, sprayers, as well as combines. What I wanted to do is bring Clint onto the show, and we're going to talk a little bit just about precision upgrade kit big picture. Before we dive into that, Clint, why don't you introduce yourself, tell our listeners a little bit about who you are, where you come from, and how you got to where you are today?

Clint Chaffer: Tony, first off, thank you for having me on the show. It's a pleasure to join you here today, and I'm excited to jump into the conversation here. A little background on myself, so I'm in the marketing group for precision upgrades. I've been with Deere getting close to a year, so fairly fresh in my journey here, but come from a farming background. Come from a farm just south of the Quad Cities, about 1,200 acres corn and soybeans. Passionate about technology and passionate about farming.

Tony: Great to have you on the show, Clint. Diving into it now, like I had mentioned, we talked more in-depth about each of the precision upgrade kits that are available out there, whether it be for planters, sprayers, combines. There's even precision upgrade kits for tractors. What I wanted to talk with you, Clint, is let's get a little bit about the story of precision upgrade kits. Why don't we start that with a quick reminder to our listeners, what is a precision upgrade kit?

Clint: As we look at precision upgrades, it really gives farmers the opportunity to upgrade a piece of equipment that's already sitting on their operation. It really allows them to get to that next level of technology without necessarily going and buying the new piece of equipment. For example, I know you guys talked about that on a previous episode with planters.

We can take a planter all the way back to 2005 and we can bring it to today's standards and today's technology. Precision upgrades is about meeting the farmer where they're at on their technology journey and being able to, again, get them that latest technology without necessarily upgrading to the new piece of equipment at that point in time. Just a ton of opportunity to, again, work your way up that technology journey there.

Tony: Traditionally, from a John Deere perspective, in order to get into that newer technology, you had to buy the new iron that was made with that technology. There was no upgrading, retrofitting, anything like that. This really opened up that door.

Clint: Absolutely. Technology moves fast. There's a lot of times when we're releasing new components within the technology stack that we know that a lot of farmers out there want to take advantage of the latest, greatest technology, but aren't necessarily wanting to move into a different piece of equipment. Again, I think this just really opens up that door of saying, "Hey, how do I get to that?"

Let's say I got a current planter with hydraulic meters, but I really want to move into that high-speed planting aspect. We have that precision upgrade kit to where your planter bar is probably in great health. You know the history of that planter. Now you can end up getting a precision upgrade kit and you can basically bring it all the way up to what a new planter would be functioning like up to ExactEmerge, a brush belt technology, and even then jumping into some of those newer technologies when we started thinking of, let's say, something like ExactShot, right? Again, maintaining that current piece of equipment that you have on your operation.

Tony: Let's hit the rewind button even more. When did this road start? When and why, I guess, did John Deere say, "Hey, we see a market opportunity here. Let's go down this path of precision upgrade kits."?

Clint: I'd say, Tony, this actually probably goes all the way back to probably 2015, probably somewhere around there, as you started thinking about some of the new technology that was starting to roll into the planting space and starting to hear a lot of farmers wanting that ability to bring their planter up to that latest technology. Then really as time has progressed, really starting to put that concerted effort around creating really almost a division within John Deere that focuses on precision upgrades.

I know that we've went the last couple of years from performance upgrades, now we've transitioned into precision upgrades, really looking at that opportunity to drive even more value to the farmer's operation, not only just in planters. That may have been where it started originally, but you mentioned at the top of the show, getting into sprayers and combines and tractors, airseeders. We have precision upgrade kits for really, again, trying to drive that focus of how can we maximize the value that we're bringing to the customer to really optimize their operation. Precision upgrades kits is a fantastic way to be able to get into that latest technology in a very easy fashion at that point.

Tony: You talked about the availability of the precision upgrade kits and you mentioned air seeders. Now we've got the AccuRate meter, the EZCal system being able to be upgraded on C-series air carts out there today. From Deere's eyes, who is that target market for a precision upgrade? Is it that 20-year-old planter, that 2005 planter that's maybe been on the farm for 15 of those 20 years, or is it the guy with a two-year-old planter that maybe he made the mistake, he bought a 5E or maybe bought something on auction and now he wants to get up in terms of technology? Who is that target market?

Clint: How I look at that, Tony, is the short answer is yes.

Tony: [laughs]

Clint: That's the nice part about precision upgrades is it's really for any customer that is looking at upgrading technology. That may go back to the 2013 planter or, like I said, all the way back to 2005 planter. It may be the farmer that just bought a brand new planter last year and is wanting to take that next step. Again, I look at a solution like ExactShot, that they may be wanting to jump into that next technology that maybe wasn't available that point of time at purchase, but it is available through precision upgrades. That's the nice part is we have that solution for really any operation of any size across the board on the age of equipment as well. Just a ton of flexibility as we think about the different offerings out there. Who is that precision upgrades customer? It can really be anybody that's looking at working up that technology journey there.

Tony: Yes. You talk about ExactShot. That's another one that I always think about in terms of planters. Now, I'm obviously on the planter side or a high level of focus on planters, but it can be said about the application and combines as well. With planters and ExactShot, maybe it's that where the customer just got into an ExactEmerge planter with individual row hydraulic downforce, but they didn't have the ExactRate fertilizer system on it, and they can make those incremental steps.

Maybe they want to get to ExactRate and that's good enough for them, or maybe they want to take that jump to ExactShot. It's not just an all-or-nothing, they can upgrade little by little without having to do it all in one shot.

Clint: Yes, absolutely. It also drives the flexibility of let's say even on the farmers looking at the used equipment market. I'll switch topics to sprayers here. I've hit on planters here, so I figured I'll share the love with sprayers as well.

Tony: [laughs]

Clint: Let's say that farmer is looking for a newer used sprayer. Maybe they find a sprayer that they're really interested in, but it doesn't have necessarily all of the technology that they're looking for. Knowing on the front side that you can actually end up getting that sprayer and then making that upgrade, it really allows them to look at more pieces of equipment that's available for them to go out there and, again, be able to upgrade that as they feel ready. If I'm looking at a sprayer that has, let's say, section control today, maybe I want to upgrade that to our INC Pro solution with individual nozzle control, or maybe I want to take that next step and look at ExactApply, or even taking it one step further.

If I have ExactApply, maybe my operation is ready to look at something like See & Spray technology. If I have the right compatibility with the right age of sprayer that goes along with that, I'm able to work up that technology ladder and, again, really fit it or tailor it for my operation to bring that value, to make it as most efficient as I can at the time of making that decision. It just really adds that ultimate flexibility. Whether you're looking at, again, a new piece of equipment, a used piece of equipment, or looking at the piece of equipment that's currently sitting in your shed, there's really an opportunity for all of those to be able to work up that technology ladder.

Tony: Yes. You bring up a really good point there, Clint. That is one of the things about precision upgrades that I think is often overlooked. Maybe it's because of the way we as a dealer talk about it or the customers listen or read about it is that it's often mentioned upgrade the equipment that you have today. You bring up that point of maybe they're looking at something on a dealer's lot or they're looking at something on auction.

Take that sprayer, for instance. Customer finds a nice condition R4038, fits the bill, everything they want, but it doesn't have ExactApply. It has the traditional five-way nozzle body traditional sprayer. That customer could still buy that sprayer on auction, then go to their local dealer and say, "Hey, I really want to upgrade this to ExactApply," or whatever it may be. I think that side of the precision upgrade kits often gets overlooked in order to bring current equipment up that technology ladder.

Clint: There's a lot of pathways to that latest technology there.

Tony: Absolutely, and it's no longer just finding the machine or the plant or whatever it may be with the technology. You have the ability to upgrade whatever you want. Now, with everything, all the dealers you work with, Clint, and customers you've had the opportunity to talk with, I'd imagine there's a handful of success stories out there. Would you mind sharing a story or two about customer got into a precision upgrade kit and it just really solved the problems they were looking to solve?

Clint: Talking to one farmer this past summer who jumped in and upgraded their 1795 and upgraded it to the ME5E row units, and basically took that from a hydraulic controlled planter and jumped into electric drives. It was fascinating being able to chat with him on just why he made that decision, why he worked through that upgrade process.

His whole thought was, "Hey, I know how I take care of my planter. I've been with this planter for so long. I know the bar, I know that it's in great shape. I decided to make that investment into the planter that I currently have. In the end, I end up with that newer planter. I end up with essentially the same as a new planter out there, but with a bar that I'm familiar with, and again, I know how it was taken care of. It was pretty interesting to hear his process and his journey of being able to upgrade that planter.

One of the interesting things that that farmer shared with me, he's like, "This even came with a new serial number." He goes, "It has a new serial number with it. It comes with a warranty on it." He goes, "I'm getting a lot of those benefits that I'm getting from a new planter at the time of purchasing this upgrade kit." It was pretty interesting just hearing how excited he was to get into that electric drive planter, but not needing to go buy either a new or used planter at that point in time, but being able to maintain the planter that he was familiar with.

Tony: You talked about this customer upgrading to 5E. Now, I know a lot of people, initially they go too, "If I'm going to upgrade, I go to ExactMerge to get the speed or whatever it may be." It sounds like this customer here, he essentially just wanted a planter refresh. He didn't necessarily go or want to go all the way to ExactEmerge. 5E was going to fit his operation. It's just the benefit of moving from hydraulic drive to electric drive. It's really cool to hear that he saw that opportunity to refresh the planter that he has today. By doing that, he moved into the 5E meters and got away from hydraulic drive.

Clint: One of the other pieces to that, Tony, too was that farmer decided at the time of purchasing that precision upgrade kit that he would also get IRHD and get the benefit of hydraulic downforce while he was making that upgrade. When he looked at that planter, not only is he thinking, "I can get to an electric drive planter now. I can refresh this planter and replacing, again, all brand new row units, but also I can get even another technology jump of going up to that IRHD."

I think one of the interesting conversations that I had with him as well was about him looking at just the resale value down the road of staying with that Deere on Deere solution. Everything's ran through his current monitor. He had a Precision Ag Essentials kit right in there with the G5. Really keeping it all within that same ecosystem, that was part of that selling point, being able to maintain that same technology and even, again, looking at what value that adds to his planter even down the road.

Tony: Oh, absolutely. That second piece that you had mentioned that the customer had talked to you about was that new serial number. It is recognized as a new planter. You get warranty. It is all there. It's not just upgrading that technology. There's so many pieces to it. The other part that I really like about it is the ordering window, let's call it. There really isn't an open-close window like there is on brand-new equipment, but the ordering window is different. It's open longer.

Any of the early order program discounts, they lie in different times. Versus for a planter, for instance, your order window is in that summer timeframe or those summer months, but precision upgrade kits, you can still order one today. There's so many aspects to the precision upgrade kits in terms of availability and timing and all of that stuff.

Clint: You hit on a great point. As we look at when some of these decisions are being made, a lot of decisions are made post-harvest. Let me see where the year ended. I may want to make some decisions before the year end, or maybe after I get done with harvest, I'm starting to think of that next season a little bit more and I'm going into that planning phase. I'm going to start thinking about, "Hey, what are those things that I need for my planter? How can I take that to the next level?"

I may make that decision here on the last couple of months of the year. Maybe that's a decision I make in January, February, and make sure that I can not only get it ordered, but also get it installed and start learning that new technology and really preparing myself for that next season. We do see a lot of benefit of opening up and making sure that we have that order season in those key different times throughout the year.

Tony: Yes. That's one of the things you talk about. When these decisions are being made, I always think about-- Again, talking planters. We're not hating on the sprayers and the combines, but talking planters again, when customers are in the combine, they are going across every acre of their ground, they are seeing their crop, they are seeing the final product, and they're looking, they're watching going, "Man, what happened over there? Is that a planter issue? Is that a seed issue? Is that a natural weather issue or concern? What's going on? "

I like to think that the customers have planters on their mind as they're in the combine because they're seeing everything that that planter did on the front side of the season. Again, at harvest, we are beyond that early order program window for planters. Having the ability to, as you're sitting in your combine going, "Gosh, maybe we should make a change or an addition to our planter," you still have that ability with precision upgrade kits.

Clint: Just talking about a couple of other success stories that I ended up sharing with you too, Tony. Again, I'll throw some love over on the sprayer side here as well.

Tony: [chuckles]

Clint: I had plenty of opportunities this year to talk with farmers about their experience running See & Spray. I know there's been just a ton of excitement around our See & Spray technology. I talked to a farmer. This would have been late summer I was chatting with him on just his experience running See & Spray. It was fantastic to hear he was running See & Spray premium on a 2018 sprayer is what he's running it on. He was just talking about how it truly changed the way he looked at his application process. He had sat down, created a plan that he was working with his local agronomist, and really setting up that season-long application plan really tailored around our See & Spray solution.

It was phenomenal to talk to him at the end of the season and talking about just what he was seeing from a savings perspective, averaging well over 50% savings on his herbicide throughout that entire year, and then on any of the times that he was running See & Spray. Also then going back and looking at those fields and he was just thrilled with how clean his soybeans fields were, his corn fields were all through that season. He just had a phenomenal experience running See & Spray and really, again, tailoring it towards his operation at that point in time.

Tony: The awesome thing about that is you said all that, that high level of See & Spray technology is being done with a model year 2018 sprayer.

Clint: Yes.

Tony: Those are the kind of stories that really make you think that, gosh, the technology available and the broad spectrum model year range that I can get some of this technology on, there's opportunity here for so many different customers. Whether it be large, medium, small, no matter where they're at, if the technology fits their operation, they can jump on it.

Clint: When we're thinking about that latest technology, we are thinking about late-model equipment. That's what's so unique about precision upgrades is, again, it just really opens up all of those different pieces of equipment really depending on the precision upgrade kit itself, but really opening up that opportunity, one of them that I'm excited about. It's funny because we look at this as it's an older sprayer, but I look at the 30 series sprayers, 4730, 4830. We have the ability to take that sprayer from a section control sprayer and get that to individual nozzle control now, pulsing technology, turn compensation, all of individual nozzle control shut off, all of that.

You can take this sprayer that it might be back to 2009, and all of a sudden, you can take that sprayer and bring it to today's standards and now you're going to start seeing that herbicide saving. I'm no longer overlapping, I'm no longer maybe taking a yield hit where I've double-sprayed crop. There's a lot of those little benefits as you start thinking about being able to take an older piece of equipment and bringing it to today's technology standards, and precision upgrade kits is just a wonderful way to do that.

Tony: Where does John Deere see this market going and what are some of the things that our listeners can look forward to in terms of precision upgrade kits from John Deere?

Clint: One thing that we're always looking at is how can we continue to expand compatibility and bring these technologies to even more pieces of John Deere equipment. Going back to the 30 series sprayers, that was introduced this year. As we think about into the future, one of the things that I like to look at is really continuing down this path of sense and act technology. When I think of sense and act, it is See & Spray. It is a sense and act. You're sensing a weed, you're spraying that weed. I think of ExactShot. You're sensing that seed coming down the brush belt, you're dosing that seed as it's coming out.

I think as we start thinking about sense and act technology and what we can continue to build upon, that's where I start seeing a lot of the future, just bringing that high technology in ways of integrating it with machine learning or artificial intelligence. Bringing a lot of these really sophisticated technologies into our equipment and being able to do that, again, not just on brand new equipment, but how can we end up bringing that to the equipment that's currently sitting in your shed today?

Tony: This high level of technology, whether it be See & Spray or ExactShot, it's not just, "Hey, I'm going to wait a year or two and then I'll buy a two-year-old sprayer or two-year-old planter with that technology on it." You can do it next year or you can do it right now with the planter or sprayer that you have. Really great to hear that you guys at John Deere are continuing to look forward, continuing to broaden that portfolio of precision upgrade kits and what's going to be available.

Clint: I think one of the other things too, Tony, is how can we continue to drive modularity? Being able to take those different steps throughout that journey. One of them, I've mentioned this a couple of times with ExactShot. When we think about that solution, one of the things that always piques my interest is a farmer today can look at his planter and say, "Man, I'd like to get to in-furrow fertilizer." The conversation that we can have there is, "Hey, we have ExactRate, a phenomenal proven in-furrow fertilizer technology." We also have the two-by-two aspect on there as well, but I'm talking in-furrow here for this example.

You can end up taking that farmer from no starter fertilizer into ExactRate. Then as they get comfortable with ExactRate, maybe that's where they start looking at a solution like ExactShot and being able to really, truly look at those savings, look at that starter fertilizer savings. In a lot of cases, we're seeing over 60% savings with the farmers that are running ExactShot. We have that kit that allows you to upgrade from ExactRate to ExactShot.

Being able to have those different steps in place that allows a farmer to really, again, work up that technology ladder at their pace. Again, we're trying to meet them where they're at on their tech journey, and I think that's always an important thing as we move forward, is how can we continue to allow that incremental steps as we're moving through that technology journey there?

Tony: It's really awesome you bring up that exact scenario. I was just out talking with a customer a couple of weeks ago. This particular customer, essentially the story you just told, is they're interested in upgrading to ExactEmerge. We were talking fertilizer systems and we got going down that road of talking ExactShot. He was hesitant. He goes, "Gosh, how long has it been out there and whatnot?"

We at RDO, we got the opportunity to help you guys at John Deere test that technology, so we got to see it firsthand prior to its public release. We know what that system can do. Like you were saying, upwards of 60% in-furrough fertilizer cost savings, but the customer was still like, "Oh, gosh, yes, I don't know."Then we went down the road of, "We'll tell you what, you put ExactRate on your planter today, or with your ExactEmerge upgrade, you put ExactRate on today. In one, two, three years when ExactShot has been out in the market a little bit more, there's more data behind it, you can see, talk to more people, we can upgrade from ExactRate to ExactShot." It's really cool that you brought up that scenario-

Clint: [chuckles]

Tony: -and I just had that exact conversation.

Clint: We didn't even have that conversation before you hit the record button either.

Tony: No.

Clint: That was perfect.

Tony: Yes, that was unplanned, but it lined up perfect. It's really neat, just the thought process behind all of it and the options, the solutions, the upgradeability that there is with everything you guys at John Deere are delivering.

Clint: The other thing too that I'd want to hit on here is just that I always think it's always fun to talk about these latest solutions, again, like an ExactShot or a See & Spray. Another thing that I always like to point out is our Precision Ag Essentials kit and being able to upgrade, whether you got a 2630, which phenomenal monitor. Guys still love their 2630s. We have this great upgrade path and kit available that allows them to also experience that latest monitor paired with the latest receiver, and also then that modem, which allows you to connect everything through operation center.

As you start thinking about being able to have data flowing back and forth and being able to see that machine information, it's really that great kit to be able to take that step. We've seen a lot of customers. They may be running a tractor that's from the early '80s, and they're throwing Precision Ag Essentials kits into them, whether that may be their tillage tractor or something of that nature, and they're wanting to throw some sort of guidance on there.

Being able to have that kit that you can take a pretty old tractor and be able to bring that into that latest technology when we start thinking about displays and guidance and receivers and whatnot, and again, then that connectivity back and forth to operation center I think is key. I know we talk about a lot of the implements, but at the top of the call, you talked about, hey, precision upgrade kits for tractors. There's a lot of opportunity here to get new technology and some pretty old equipment at that point in time.

Tony: Absolutely. Here we go again. This is an unplanned connection, but that exact scenario with the Precision Ag Essentials kit, you get the G5 display, the StarFire receiver, the modem, that has actually helped us at RDO in our Southwest region. Down in Southern Arizona, Southern California, we've had some customers jump on board with some higher levels of technology because the low cost of entry with the Precision Ag Essentials kit.

A lot of the equipment down there in that region has been either traditional ground drive or tuck fertilizer, for instance. Maybe it's just a basic ground drive pump or a PTO pump. Now we're adding SeedStar-enabled planters or John Deere rate controllers, and they're needing that display in the tractor. Now, their tractors aren't necessarily old per se, but they've never had the Precision Ag displays in the cabs of those tractors and now they have a reason to. The Precision Ag Essentials kit is giving them that perfect entry point to get the latest display, the latest receiver. Then you talk about that JDLink modem, we're starting to collect that data, get it in the operation center.

Yes, it's not just the implements, the planters, the sprayers, the combines. There's so much that can be done on the tractor side as well. Wrapping up here, if people want to learn more about precision upgrade kits, I know we talked about the broad portfolio, but there are some model year limits to it. Depending on the technology you're looking into, there are some model particularities to it. Where can people go, who can they talk to to learn more about all of the precision upgrade kits available?

Clint: Tony, the first place I would tell anybody to go get information around John Deere precision upgrades is their local John Deere dealer. That's going to be the best place. Stop in, start asking questions, and you'll find folks that will be happy to talk about precision upgrades. That would be the first step. If you want to do a little research on your own, maybe in the comfort of your office, you can always go out to Deere.com, and you can navigate through-- I think you click on equipment, agriculture, and then precision upgrades, and you'll get to our precision upgrades homepage.

There, we even have a link right in the middle of the page where they can download our latest Model Year '25 precision upgrades handbook. That handbook has a ton of great information in there, some compatibility aspects as well. We have a compatibility checker for both planters and sprayers where you can actually take the pin number of your planter or sprayer and put that right into the website, and you can start getting some information on what upgrades are available for your specific machine at that point in time.

Then you can share that back with your dealer and then start the quote process to understand what all options are there. Again, I'd always say talk to your local dealer first. If you want to do some of your own research, out there on Deere.com is a great place to go as well.

Tony: Yes. There are so many good resources out there, whether it be from the John Deere side, or your local John Deere dealer side. I encourage you ask questions, bring up the curiosities to whoever you work with, whether it be RDO equipment or any of the other local John Deere dealerships out there. Ask the questions, talk to the right people, and figure out what is doable with your equipment, your operation, and whatever that may be.

Clint, I just want to thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to sit down and chat with me, a little bit of a backstory here on precision upgrade kits. If you have not listened to the other episodes, I encourage you go back. We talked about planter precision upgrade kits on episode 199, we talked sprayers on episode 201, and we talked combine upgrade kits on episode 202. Thanks again for doing this, Clint.

Clint: Oh, thank you for having me. This was a pleasure. Thank you very much.

Tony: Please take a moment to subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. You can subscribe to the show on the many different podcasting apps that we're streaming this out to such as Apple, Google, Spotify, as well as many others. While you're out there, drop us a review. We'd love to hear what you think about the show. Lastly, make sure to follow RDO Equipment Company on Facebook, Instagram, and X, and also catch our latest videos on YouTube. You can also follow me on X @RDOTonyK.