John Deere acquired aerial-imagery provider Sentera as the 188-year-old agricultural-machinery manufacturer continues to expand the capabilities of its precision-agriculture technology.
Sentera’s field-scouting platform allows farmers to gather high-resolution, multispectral images with its drone-mounted cameras. The data is then processed with Sentera’s FieldAgent, which uses AI and machine learning to help farmers assess plant-level health, identify crop stressors and take appropriate actions.
Currently, Sentra’s primary use case is in weed management. Sentera-equipped drones fly over fields at high speeds and generate high-resolution images, which identify the exact location of specific weeds and are used to generate a weed map. Sentera’s Smartscript Weeds uses the map to produce a targeted prescription for how much herbicide a farmer needs to load into their sprayer. The prescription, once generated, is wirelessly sent to John Deere equipment through its Operations Center.
The weed maps are not the only actionable data Sentera’s platform can produce. It can also be used in the field to assess pests, crop-stand uniformity and disease.
The Saint Paul, Minnesota-based company has already been working with John Deere for almost 10 years, providing data as one its first “integrated partners,” said Eric Taipale, Sentera’s co-founder and chief technology officer. These partners agree to integrate their solutions, which typically provide data, technology or services, with the John Deere ecosystem, which includes the open-source Operations Center.
“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,” said Chris Winkler, director of digital software and solutions at John Deere.
Following the acquisition, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, there will not be any major changes at the two companies, at least immediately, John Deere Global Tech Marketing Lead Joe Liefer said Sentera will operate as a business unit of John Deere and continue developing its aerial imagery and agronomic data products and providing data to the Operations Center.
The deal is not expected to have much of an impact on the companies’ existing relationships either. Sentera will continue to supply cameras to drone manufacturers for use with their products and sell to farmers, agronomists and agricultural retailers, while the Operations Center will remain open for other drone-imagery providers.
Looking ahead, the companies will seek synergies. For example, John Deere currently has in-house development of the cameras and imagers it installs on its ground-based equipment underway; integrating aerial shots from Sentera-equipped drones into the data mix is a natural fit, Liefer said.
“John Deere provides us a great outcome and is exactly the right home for Sentera,” said Brian Wenngatz, Sentera’s CEO. “They are the industry benchmark for innovation in precision agriculture, and they share our belief that the future of access to these technologies is built on trusted relationships, measurable insights and scalable platforms. Together, we’ll be able to support more farmers and help them unlock even more value.”
This article first appeared in AI Business’ sister publication IoT World Today.