John Deere tractors get connectivity boost with Starlink deal Farm equipment maker John Deere has signed a deal with SpaceX to use its Starlink satellite internet service to keep combines and other farm equipment connected to the internet in underserved rural areas. SpaceX-owned Starlink announced the deal on X (formerly Twitter) yesterday, saying that its service is "ideal for rural …
Where's the profit in that?!
Come on, we don't buy products these days to benefit us, get real! Manufaturers are no better than drug dealers, first hit's free and once you're hooked then they've got you for life on a permanent subscription for their product. Just try working with cloud microservices for more than 6 months, then you start to have a some small idea what heroine junkies go through!
When we had our farm, the only "computer" on any of our three tractors was for the fuel injection system on the Deutz. We didn't need GPS to plow, disc, or plant our fields. We didn't need electronic controls to set the three point hitch. And our oldest tractor. a Case 930, worked just as well and hard as out Deutz D 9006 as our Oliver 1750.
Blame the EPA (at least in part) for requiring emissions control on tractors. You NEED at least some computers on a modern diesel to keep things running. On the financial side, a modern tractor does a heck of a lot more work on the same amount of fuel than an old Case 930, and fuel cost is certainly becoming a big overal cost in the budget of many farmers.
GPS is also mostly a cost thing. It lets farmers automatically regulate their equipment, planting less crop on less fertile or less well irrigated soil, applying more fertilizer or other products exactly where it's needed, etc. Overal this means better yields from the entire field at less cost, because it's not wasted planting seed in an area that will not grow a dense crop or applying too much fertilizer on good soil or too little on bad soil. And it allows a farmer to do that with less man-power overall, faster, than the old "everything manual" process.
Having GPS, or "a computer" isn't the problem. It's companies like JD insisting that they're the only ones capable of telling that computer that a filter was replaced, that a sensor fault should be ignored, that a certain satellite receiver should be connected to port 2, or just reading sensor outputs to determine where a fault lies. The big advantage of those old tractors of yours was that any 18 year old farm hand could look after them and fault-find if they didn't work. That SHOULD still be the case with modern tractors but "big agro" has decided there's no profit in that.
'GPS is also mostly a cost thing. It lets farmers automatically regulate their equipment, planting less crop on less fertile or less well irrigated soil, applying more fertilizer or other products exactly where it's needed, etc."
That's taking the skill from the farmer and turning it into a subscription. The big downside is if the tech goes off-line, a whole tractor is kaput and it's often the tractor that's collecting the data from the fields in the first place. Ag production can be a game of hours, so if you tractor is laid up and it will be 4 weeks until a factory tech can come out, that could be a large portion of the crop that can't be harvested at optimum. This is a huge problem with outsourcing anything, you lose control so you have to plan for that risk.
That's taking the skill from the farmer and turning it into a subscription.
It's not about skill. It's about reality.
My uncle isn't less skilled for having GPS guidance on his tractor. When you're on your 9th hour in the cab, the GPS glosses over those brief drifts of attention and avoids double-seeding, saving seed and money. When you know how much seed costs per tonne, these are tangible savings.
Likewise on the spraying and fertilising, real-time video analysis across the entire boom width and only selectively spraying is something the farmer literally cannot do. You can't identify pests across a 60ft swath from the cab, and a human couldn't manually control all the individual nozzles anyway. This system augments the farmer, reducing chemical inputs, which is good for both the bank balance and the environment.
But for all that, my uncle hasn't gone all-in on JDOC (or <brand equivalent>, since he's not running JD). He just likes the GPS driver assist and some of the smart spray bits. Of course he's farming a few hundred acres in the UK and does basically everything except harvesting by himself - so no need for management tools to monitor drivers or larger fleets.
In the longer run, replacing drivers with autonomous tractors does obviously entail replacement/deskilling.
It's a nuanced one though - a lot of ag-tech is very, very beneficial and augments the farmer (just as tractors are more productive than horses). Some of it is just snake-oil and most farmers leave it alone (because it's a business purchase not a new iphone, and they want to see the ROI). Much like you'd raise your eye at anyone trying to sell you a modern car without ABS brakes or lane departure buzzers... but those driver assists are useful, unlike "Autopilot" and not-quite-actual-self-driving.
"My uncle isn't less skilled for having GPS guidance on his tractor. When you're on your 9th hour in the cab, the GPS glosses over those brief drifts of attention and avoids double-seeding, saving seed and money. When you know how much seed costs per tonne, these are tangible savings."
Yes, I do agree that GPS guidance is a good thing to avoid costly mistakes, but I should have been more clear that it was the other data that JD tractors will infer based on drive dynamics of the tractor. The skills I was thinking about are more to do with moisture levels, fertilizer, etc. A seasoned farmer can go out in the fields and tell what's going on with watering and soil nutrients, etc. If you package all of that up into a farm vehicle painted green that will do all of those things for you by subscription and apply some people that don't speak the language (to imply a lack of citizenship and very low pay expectations), any fault in that machinery won't have any back up. Those factory mechanics get really backed up at key points on the calendar when everybody needs their machines right F'ing now.
"Or how the government can run the equipment without a farmer. Precursor to robotic farming."
The US government is so inept it couldn't run a brothel at even a break-even. There is more and more automation going into the fields, but there are still many variable to account for with growing plants with many more that nobody has come up with a good way to quantify. I've seen some very novel concepts for harvesting that mean a field can be picked a few times rather than just once with humans since the machines are less labor intensive to start and stop. This will lead to better yields per field. Many times 'ugly veg' gets left to rot, but with automated picking and sorting, the good looking stuff goes in one hopper and the ugly in another where it can be processed for food banks and commercial processes where it's going to be chopped up into bits anyway so nobody will ever see it was wonky. I just did a batch of pickles chips and I would have grabbed oddly shaped cucumbers if it saved me money. I might make more pickles just because I could get "non-conforming' cucumbers on the cheap.
"Not sure how disabling his tractor stops a striking farmer from striking, but yes."
A farmer on strike isn't going to sacrifice a whole crop to make a point, but he could hold back on delivery depending on what it is. A disabled tractor will certainly mean if he doesn't fall in line that whole crop will be a goner. It would also mean that said farmers aren't going to be heading into town and blocking roads with those tractors.
It will help John Deere remotely disable a machine if the owner has done something that JD deems criminal, eg: replacing a headlamp bulb without calling out a JD mechanic.
But they did brick some Ukrainian tractors which were stolen during the invasion and were found being used in Russia, so credit to them for that.
"We believe SATCOM will unlock significant opportunities in agriculture by enabling farmers to take advantage of innovative technologies that rely on real-time information and communication,"
How "real time" does your data need to be when growing plants? It would mean that those JD tractors would need to be in the fields gathering that data often enough rather than an experienced farmer using Mk1 eyeballs and their hands for a read of the soil.
I think the FCC rejected Starlink's proposal because if Starlink is going to provide adequate service in cities like New York LA ,Seattle, Boston it'll already have all(?) the infrastructure it needs to provide rural broadband in the lower 48 and Hawaii. Little need for a subsidy. I'm thinking that they might need a few better placed ground stations for some very remote areas, but I don't know enough about their network to say for sure. Maybe they can get money for those.
I'm thinking that they might need a few better placed ground stations for some very remote areas, but I don't know enough about their network to say for sure. Maybe they can get money for those.
Well Musk states as a fact that he knows more about manufacturing than anyone else alive on the planet, so it will all have been worked out and he's probably very confident it will be available in two years. Or is it four? Probably.
“John May, CEO at John Deere, predicted in 2022 that some 10 percent of the company's revenue would come from software fees by 2030. Making that software worth the recurring cost to cash-strapped farmers means ensuring Deere equipment isn't regularly dropping its internet connection.”
Can the farmers opt-out of such software fees?
“Deere & Co. will allow farmers to repair their own equipment”
That demonstrates commendable magnanimity on their part. /s
Good morning Farmer Brown, I'm Alexa. Customer support have noticed you've not changed your hydraulic oil on schedule. But not to worry I've ordered the required amount for you. Our delivery driver will arrive tomorrow, if you're not in we'll leave the oil with a neighbour. Unfortunately that means your credit level on this tractor is too low to start your engine. Please tap the card reader by the steering wheel with a valid credit card of your choosing, and we'll be on our way to the fields.
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