John Deere has acquired Sentera, a provider of remote imagery solutions for agriculture, and plans to incorporate its camera and aerial scouting technology into the company’s service offering.
The acquisition of St. Paul, Minnesota-based Sentera will advance the capabilities of Deere’s existing technology offerings, says its director of digital software and solutions, Chris Winkler.
“Combining Sentera’s imagery capabilities with the John Deere Operations Center will enable farmers and trusted advisors to seamlessly gather and integrate agronomic data, understand real-time conditions, and turn data into insights that drive decisions in the field throughout the growing season,” says Winkler.
Sentera cameras are compatible with most major drone platforms and enable farmers and crop scouts to quickly capture high-resolution data at scale. These capabilities and FieldAgent software tools help assess plant-level health, identify stressors, and take action, says a Deere release. In addition, Smartscript Weeds, a customized herbicide prescription, can be delivered to sprayers with individual nozzle control.
Drones equipped with Sentera technology fly over fields at high speeds and generate high-resolution images. These images are processed with Sentera’s FieldAgent application to identify the exact location of specific weeds and generate a weed map. This map becomes a targeted prescription for how much product a farmer needs to load into their sprayer, helping to minimize waste. Once the prescription is generated, it can be wirelessly sent to compatible equipment through the John Deere Operations Center.
Weed maps are just one example of actionable data that is enabled with Sentera scouting technology, says Deere. The same process can be used in a field to assess crop stand uniformity, disease pressure, and pests.
Sentera will continue to supply cameras directly to drone manufacturers for integration into their products, as well as sell to farmers, agronomists, ag retailers, and other users. The John Deere Operations Center will continue to be open for other drone imagery providers for integration.
