In orbit since 2017 with an expected design life of 15 years, the SES-15 (PRN 133) satellite will be offline in “test” mode this spring from mid-May into early June.

WAAS signal outage planned

Satellite 133 will not be available during some spring seeding weeks

If the GPS system in use on your farm relies on a WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) signal, then be aware there will be an outage right in the middle of spring seeding this year. The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which administers the civilian-use GPS network, plans to switch WAAS GEO 6 (S15 […] Read more

Staff of SB Quantum at work. The Sherbrooke, Que. company was chosen to be part of John Deere’s annual Startup Collaborator program for 2024. It has developed technology based on a novel quantum magnetometer that can more accurately measure fluctuations in the Earth’s magnetic field.

A quantum-sensing startup gets Deere backing

John Deere's Startup Collaborator program helps new companies develop, explore innovative tech

Glacier FarmMedia — A Canadian firm that uses quantum sensing to improve navigation for autonomous vehicles is among six start-up companies from around the world that will be collaborating with John Deere. “This is a perfect opportunity to find a technology that’s really interesting that may have a large application to solving customer problems that […] Read more


A bridge system from Agra-GPS allows 
Deere GreenStar GPS to function in several non-Deere machines.

Bridging the digital gap

 Agra-GPS “bridge” kit makes Deere GPS compatible with other brands

John Deere currently offers a pretty broad range of digital features for its equipment, and many Prairie growers are familiar with using the brand’s GPS and data management systems. But for those using mixed fleets, transferring the Deere technology to other machines and getting anything near the full range of available features hasn’t always been […] Read more

Deere introduced the StarFire 6000 receiver in June, along with announcing the availability of the SF3 enhanced-correction signal.

New John Deere guidance receiver

John Deere has again updated its satellite guidance product line with the introduction of the StarFire 6000 receiver and new SF3 signal correction. In a June press announcement, the company claims these new product offerings will give customers “greater precision capabilities, accuracy and uptime.” “The StarFire 6000 Receiver offers a full range of differential correction […] Read more


With NH’s PLM Connect telematics a machine’s monitor screen can be viewed on a “virtual dashboard” remotely in real time by a farm manager connected to the system.

New Holland expands PLM Connect

PLM adds two-way wireless data transfers to its PLM Connect

At a media briefing at New Holland’s North American headquarters in Pennsylvania last July, marketing managers updated journalists on the brand’s then-pending expansion of its PLM Connect telematics offering. The official public introduction was made at the U.S. Farm Progress Show in August. At the company’s test facility, Jordan Milewski, brand marketing manger, gave members […] Read more

An Autonomous Greenbot tractor with attached roto-tiller on display at Agritechnica. 


Heading toward autonomy

On display at Agritechnica: a driverless Dutch-built tractor hits the market

General purpose, completely autonomous (driverless) tractors may be the holy grail of farm equipment design. And over the past few years a wide variety of companies have offered farmers enticing glimpses of what the future may hold in that area. There have been a number of limited-use robotic machines introduced to do specific tasks on […] Read more