Launched in 2019, the program pairs Deere with hand-selected startups for year-long, project-based collaborations designed to test how emerging technologies perform in agricultural and construction use cases. It is not primarily an acquisition or investment vehicle.

“We’ve intentionally designed it that way,” said Colton Salyards, who manages the program within Deere’s corporate development and strategy group.

“The program was never designed to be an investment or an acquisition vehicle.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Emerging sensing and AI technologies could eventually improve soil analysis, equipment uptime and precision decision-making on farms.

Instead, Deere and each startup define a joint project, outlining objectives on both sides and evaluating how a given technology might perform in agricultural or construction use cases.

With the addition of this year’s five companies, Deere will have worked with 42 startups through the program.

Each year, Salyards said, public announcements of the cohort generate significant inbound interest from startups hoping to participate. The response can be “overwhelming,” but the companies selected stand out.

“There’s a key reason why we’ve selected them,” he said.

“There are use cases across agriculture that we believe could be of tremendous customer value.”

Sensor sensibility

Among the 2026 cohort is Australian firm resonAg, which is adapting miniaturized MRI-based sensing technology — technology originally developed for medical imaging, and later adapted for industries such as mining and oil and gas — for use in advanced soil sensing.

Deere is exploring how that sensing capability could support precision agriculture applications.

“This is of huge importance for precision agriculture,” he said.

“Imagine a planting system that can sense and act in real time to conditions across the field.”

Another company, AIRS ML, is developing edge-AI systems that combine machine sensor data with on-device machine learning to predict equipment failures in real time. The goal is to improve uptime by identifying potential maintenance issues before they lead to breakdowns.

The remaining companies in the cohort include:

• IoTag, which focuses on telematics and mixed-fleet performance insights.
• TorqueAGI, which is developing AI foundation models for robotics.
• Aerobotics, which applies drone imagery and computer vision to specialty crop production.

While not designed as an acquisition vehicle, the program has, in two instances, led to investment or acquisition when the strategic fit aligned. Salyards emphasized that integration into Deere equipment is not the default outcome.

“This is one vehicle among many that we use to understand what innovative companies are out there,” he said.

“Ultimately, it helps us determine how well those technologies could fit for our ag and construction customers.”

The post Deere taps startups to explore sensing, AI tech for farm uses appeared first on Grainews.

Artificial intelligence, automation and data systems dominated nearly every session, from crop protection to robotics to biotech discovery.

However, beneath all that, one quieter theme kept surfacing.

A lot of the early, practical value of these systems is not in running machines. It is in interpreting data and turning it into recommendations.

WHY IT MATTERS: As AI tools take on more of the data work, farmers will still need trusted advice to turn those recommendations into decisions that work in their fields.

In fact, based on the discussions at the summit, that part of the conversation was in the rear view mirror. Much of the focus now is on what comes next — building systems that can act on those recommendations.

Soil tests, weather stations, satellite imagery, equipment data is familiar ground for agronomy. What is changing is how quickly and how consistently that information can be processed.

In one session about biotech discovery, speakers described AI systems that can design and refine experiments with minimal human input.

It is a long way from a Prairie field, but it is easy to imagine that same approach being used to improve plot trials or even guide on-farm decisions aimed at maximizing yield.

And it is already happening.

On the farm, that same capability is showing up in decision support — not perfect, not complete, but improving. These tools are getting better at taking large volumes of information and turning it into clear, actionable decisions.

From interpretation to action

And that raises a fair question. If more of that interpretation work can be done by a system, where does that leave farm agronomists?

The answer is not that they disappear. It is that the job shifts.

Research agronomists are not really in the crosshairs here. They are still building the knowledge base. The question is what happens to the people turning that knowledge into decisions on the farm.

That kind of agronomy has never just been about reading numbers off a report. It is about context: knowing the field, the farmer, the equipment and the risks they are willing to take.

A recommendation generated from data still has to be weighed against reality. Is the field fit? Does the timing work? What happens if the weather turns? Does it fit the rest of the rotation?

Those are not problems that go away with better models. In some ways, they become more important because more recommendations are coming, faster and with more confidence behind them.

What these systems may change is how agronomists spend their time. Less time pulling data together. Less time building base recommendations from scratch. More time stress-testing those recommendations, adapting them to local conditions and helping farmers decide what to act on and what to ignore.

There is also a practical layer to this that did not get as much attention on stage. These tools do not just appear on farms fully formed. They need to be set up, calibrated and understood. Someone has to translate them from a product into something that actually works in a field.

One discussion on soil health touched on a more basic issue: even something as fundamental as soil testing is not fully standardized. Results can vary depending on how samples are taken, handled and processed.

That is an opportunity.

It suggests there is still a role for the local private agronomist — someone who knows the region and their customers, understands local soil conditions, along with insect and disease pressure, and someone who farmers know personally and trust.

The role doesn’t disappear, it changes

It is easy to frame new technology as a threat to existing roles, but agriculture has22s a way of absorbing new tools and reshaping the jobs around them.

GPS did not eliminate the nesed for farm agronomists. Variable rate did not either. They changed the conversation.

This one feels different. These systems are starting to take on the interpretation work that has traditionally defined farm agronomy. However, the pattern is familiar.

The technology is moving quickly, that much is clear. However, it is still being tested against the same reality. Fields, weather and economics have a way of exposing weak ideas.

On-farm agronomy does not sit outside that process. It is part of it.

If anything, the need for people who can bridge the gap between what a system suggests and what actually works on the ground will only grow.

The post How AI is changing on-farm agronomy and decision-making appeared first on Grainews.

At its display, Kubota had two machines to boast about. Both are autonomous tractors: one is already in early commercialization and the other is a futuristic concept machine, suggesting where the technology could eventually lead.

The forward looking machine is what Kubota calls the KVPR. It’s a conceptual, versatile platform the company has dubbed a “transformer robot.” It’s size can expand, contract and move along every axis, delivering the adaptability of multiple machines in one.

Notably, the machine on display had no operator station.

Kubota says the kind of versatility built into the KVPR “supports customers across different operations and seasons, makes work simpler and more enjoyable.”

“The KVPR is a concept vehicle, a possible vision of a possible future,” says Barry Greenaway, director of product for construction, commercial and residential equipment at Kubota Canada.

The other machine was an existing M5 diesel tractor that was retrofitted to work autonomously, with the partnership of Agtonomy in California.

“That’s the exciting thing for me at this year’s show, is we have something real, not just concept visions.”

The M5 is an off-the-shelf 105-horsepower diesel model that has been retrofitted with drive-by-wire components to operate fully autonomously. It is about to be delivered to a select few customers in California.

“The first market for it is California,” Greenaway says.

“We have four of them being delivered to a vineyard to do mowing, tilling and crop spraying. They’re customers Kubota USA has had a close relationship with. They know they’re at the forefront of our technology and foray into this.”

A few more are on order for orchards and others in the state.

READ MORE: Would an autonomous tractor really fit your operation?

Although the tractors are being sold to customers, this is the early stages of commercialization, and the company will be closely monitoring their performance. It will be kind of an early-release test bed.

However, the company wants this autonomous machine to be more than just a tractor that can drive itself around. There is a digital AI system on it that uses sensors to evaluate crop conditions and identify problem areas. That improves overall farm management efficiency.

Todd Stucke, general manager of Agri Solutions Headquarters, Kubota Japan, and president of Kubota North America, said in a press release that the additional technology built into the tractors is a critical element.

“Our go-to-market solutions are the culmination of our customer-driven innovation cycle, where the goal is not simply to automate what you’ve always done, but to rethink how work can be done more intuitively and efficiently.”

Greenaway says the strategy has two prongs.

“We have Blumefield, which is a Kubota-owned company, which specializes in crop monitoring and autonomous functionality. We’ve also partnered with a company in San Francisco called Agtonomy.

“We supply the tractor and sensors and Agronomy supplies the AI analysis, the actual farm management smarts.”

Kubota expects to monitor the performance of the machines over the next 12 months and then make a decision as to whether they are ready for wider commercialization. From there, the brand will need to ready its dealer network to sell and support the technology before it becomes more widely available.

“The intention is to spend the next 12 months with the customers and then judge the readiness for market and go from there,” Greenaway says.

“We have a responsibility to our dealers and customers that anything we launch has support on the ground. That’s the next step I see as we prove out and refine the technology.”

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The Harvest Settings Automation feature, which the brand introduced on previous model year machines, and which optimizes thresher settings, gets an enhancement for 2027. It will now be able to work with lentils, peas, rye, triticale, oats and sunflowers.

“We’re really expanding our automation capabilities,” says Brady Alley, combine marketing manager.

“We have six additional crops that are comparable with our Harvest Settings Automation. “

The Predictive Ground Speed Automation feature that debuted on 2025 models also gets enhancements.

A new update uses enhanced processing power and a trained algorithm to accurately detect green crops within an otherwise-mature stand. Green Crop Detection allows Predictive Ground Speed Automation to adjust the combine’s ground speed in response to a wider range of crop conditions.

“Predictive Ground Speed Automation, those are the cameras that look ahead and also satellite maps, is expanding the performance in different conditions,” says Alley.

“Adding green crop detection is one of the biggest things, detecting wet patches or green stems on wheat and making sure we’re slowing down to be able to process that increased biomass and moisture.”

New half-length concaves now allow for modular installation and better durability and are compatible with model year 2027 X9s. The new cradle also enables factory installation of the remote, from-the-cab, controlled concave and separator grate covers.

RELATED:  Check out John Deere X9 Combines for Sale on AgDealer.com

“With the Tru-Thresh family of concaves, we have what we call a half-length design,” Alley says.

“There’s a new carrier. Instead of a full U-shape, now we have two half sections. That will allow us to be more modular with our setup.

“If you think about getting unthreshed wheat or white caps into my sample, that’s an indication I want to keep that material in the rotor for another revolution. So with remote concave covers, I can close covers on the first, second or both sections of the rotor so I can hold that material in. On the separator grates, we also have covers as well.”

Choices for Tru-Thresh concaves include a high-moisture configuration with an angle bar at the intersection of both rotors and round bars for the rest of the section. There is also a multi-crop with angle bars, large wires and small wires, as well as the standard setup Deere has offered previously.

“The benefit is you can really tailor it to the conditions you’re seeing,” says Alley.

To help with initial setup for attaching headers across the full combine fleet, there is a new initial settings feature, which acts as a starting point to fine-tune the configuration for the crop and field conditions.

X9s also get a bigger 550-bushel grain tank and 35-foot unloading auger.

And for those that want to install a HarvestLab 3000, there is no longer any need to cut a hole in the side of combine. New X9s will get small, removable access panels for quick installation.

“Just take a couple of bolts out and pop those off to put the sensor on and leverage the benefits of HarvestLab 3000,” says Alley.

“We’re calling it HarvestLab-ready. It will be available on all X9s.”

As with so much of Deere’s equipment offerings, the main takeaway for 2027 is that high-end technology keeps getting more sophisticated, making it easier for inexperienced operators to do a first-class job bringing in the harvest.

“The message we want to emphasize, especially with our technology features, is our commitment to getting better over time … expanding the automation capabilities to more crop types and conditions,” says Alley.

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An analyst, a retired airline and military pilot with decades of experience, commented on that event, saying new pilots being trained today are becoming more dependent on using the built-in technology to fly a plane rather than a more hands-on manual procedure more common on older aircraft.

That problem is also occurring for vehicle drivers.

Having spent time working at a truck driving school, I was taken aback by the number of drivers who had no previous experience shifting a manual transmission or even an understanding of basic mechanical systems.

That was true even with drivers who had a couple of years of experience and whose skills we evaluated for some fleets as part of their hiring process.

This lack of driver knowledge is the result of advancing technology that makes it possible to operate all vehicles with fewer skills, just as GPS auto-guidance, headland turn systems and automated threshing adjustments in combines let farm equipment operators get by with fewer skills.

All of that advancement, however, comes with a cost. Today’s vehicles — and farm machines — experience far more problems than older models.

When power windows and door locks first started commonly appearing in the 1970s, many people shunned them because the electrical systems were more likely to fail over time than good old crank window mechanisms.

And really, is it a hardship to manually crank up a window?

The total of recalls

Today’s vehicles are bristling with technology, and there is no avoiding the electronics.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a report in 2023 that revealed that an increasing number of vehicle recalls are related to electronics such as advanced collision avoidance systems.

Over the last five years of the report, there has been a fivefold increase in recalls involving those advanced collision avoidance features, affecting more than four million vehicles in 2022.

The NHTSA report showed that the years 2014-17 hit a peak in total vehicles affected by recalls with almost 50 million vehicles in North America impacted per year. By 2021, the number of recalls reached almost 1,000 annually.

That more than doubled the number of recalls from the earliest date in the report, 2002.

The report also showed the number of owners getting those recalls taken care of within 15 months declined over the period to slightly more than 50 per cent, meaning a significant number of vehicles are operating for extended periods with potentially faulty systems, with today’s less-skilled drivers depending on them.

Owners can use the Transport Canada website’s search feature to check if their vehicle has outstanding recalls by entering its 17-digit VIN number.

By 2024, there were 785 separate vehicle recalls in Canada, affecting more than eight million cars.

‘Find and fix’

Ford is one brand that has been criticized recently for poor quality control leading to recalls. A Transport Canada search of F-150 pickups built between 2020 and 2026 account for 69 different recalls.

In a statement, the company said the higher number of recent recalls was actually the result of stepped-up quality control measures.

“The increase in recalls reflects our intensive strategy to quickly find and fix hardware and software issues and go the extra mile to help protect customers. Ford has more than doubled its team of safety and technical experts in the past two years and significantly increased testing to failure on critical systems in current Ford vehicles such as powertrains, steering and braking. Insights from this testing are being incorporated into current production.”

The company adds that this approach has allowed it to move up several spots in the annual J.D. Power reliability ratings.

In comparison to the F-150, according to Transport Canada, recalls over the same time period for the other full-size pickups on the market shake out this way: 25 for the Chevy Silverado, 19 for the Toyota Tundra and 37 for the Ram.

So while drivers can rely on ABS to help them stop on ice without having to manually adjust braking pressure and have lane departure warning systems remind them they’re not paying attention, we’re paying a reliability price for allowing ourselves to be dumbed down as drivers. And yes, some of the technology is mandated by emissions regulations as well.

Today’s high-tech vehicles require a level of engineering and sophistication that make pumping out reliable machines a lot more difficult than it was a couple of decades or more ago.

The post Is the technology in our vehicles a help or a hindrance? appeared first on Grainews.

At the time, the company said it was working on expanding the system’s functionality to other crops.

Deere has now made good on that promise. For 2027 model year machines, it will be compatible with wheat, barley and canola.

“For model year ’27 we have a really exciting upgrade for our small grains customers,” says Joshua Ladd, marketing manager for application equipment.

“This year we’re ecstatic to roll out our small grains functionality for wheat, canola and barley in crop, and we expanded the lineup for our variable rate function for later season passes with desiccation pre-harvest passes.”

All three levels of See and Spray (Select, Premium and Ultimate) are now integrated into the same basic platform. That gives buyers more customization options, such as opting for single or dual-tank capability.

The second generation Gen 2 version also includes changes that give it improved performance over the original Gen 1 release.

Notably, the location of the boom’s centre cameras has been moved to reduce the number of times they unnecessarily revert to full broadcast mode because of vision obstructions.

“The most consistent thing we saw for a fall-back trigger was on the centre of the machine because there were four cameras tucked in on the centre behind the rear tires,” says Ladd.

“The dust they kicked up would occlude the cameras….

“With Gen 2, it’s still 36 cameras, but for those four cameras that were on the centre frame behind the tires, we’ve now located those to the front. (Moving) the four cameras to the front should significantly reduce the dust issue.”

The new hardware for the Gen 2 system is lighter and reduces weight stress on the boom.

“We’ve now gone from 10 processors to three,” he adds.

“We now have a combination of three processors and five video extenders (VEX). The VEX is overall a lighter component than the processor.”

With that lighter load, Deere can now offer full boom lighting to allow green-on-brown operation after dark in fallow fields. The brand is working on making the green-on-green system usable at night, but so far it isn’t.

See and Spray will also be compatible with a wider range of nozzle options.

“We can use our rear-incline nozzle to achieve a See and Spray speed of 16 m.p.h.,” says Ladd.

“We’re now approved to work with straight-down nozzles, though it does reduce the operational speed down to 12 m.p.h.

“Previously we said you had to use a specific category of nozzles, so we’re now widening that a bit, giving customers flexibility in nozzles they like to use for their operation.”

Deere will continue to offer the See and Spray system on a subscription basis, which Ladd says helps reduce the initial purchase cost.

The Gen 2 system will be available on 408R, 410R, 412R, 612R, and 616R sprayers, as well as all Hagie sprayers, the STS12, STS16, and STS20 for model year 2027.

Also, a new four-wheel steering feature will be an option on the 400 Series chassis, something that was previously available only on the Hagie sprayer lineup.

For those who would like to add targeted spraying to their operation but don’t want to fork out the cost of an entirely new machine, Deere is offering a See and Spray Select upgrade kit for some previous model year machines.

The Gen 2 See and Spray technology will be on display in John Deere’s exhibit at the Ag in Motion farm show this summer.

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WHY IT MATTERS: Bourgault’s addition of a new drill model and another opener, along with greater functionality in its proprietary BiC control system, provides buyers with more options to configure seed drills to their exact needs and specifications.

The Bourgault Intelligent Control (BiC) system, which the company introduced about a year ago, gets feature upgrades.

“When we introduced it in Phoenix in 2024, we weren’t ready to release what we call the stand-alone version,” says Jordan Henderson, North American sales manager.

“What we had up until this point was what we call the task controller version, where it works in conjunction with the tractor monitor.”

However, that changes in 2027.

While BiC will now be compatible with John Deere’s G4 and G5 monitors as well as recent versions of the New Holland and Case IH systems, it will also be able to work on its own through an iPad without needing a tractor monitor at all.

“This year we’re releasing BiC with stand-alone features … which means we don’t use the tractor monitor for anything,” says Henderson.

“Everything is being controlled by the BIC system. Now everything is done through the iPad.”

BiC will be capable of seamless integration with the John Deere Operations Centre and CNH’s FieldOps for automatic data streaming.

The enhanced system will also be able to support the upcoming Bourgault Connect offering, a cloud-based solution designed for simplified data management.

Growers will be able to import field boundaries, variable-rate prescriptions and agronomic data directly from a number of farm management tools without the need for manual transfers.

A new 50-foot drill, the CDi50, with a mounted product tank, will also hit dealers’ lots for 2027. It will be available with 7.5-, 10- or 12-inch row spacing and fitted with PLW or PLR openers.

The drill is designed for growers who need maximum maneuverability in the field and a compact transport configuration.

“It’s kind of a next step for us in our emerging markets, especially down in Kansas, Colorado, Eastern Canada,” says Henderson.

“In areas we traditionally haven’t been strong, we’re bringing out this new frame-mounted seeder that is bigger than anything else out there.

“The big sellers right now for that market are the 40- and 42-foot drills with 110- to 140-bushel single tanks. Ours has 200-bu. tanks and 50 feet, but transport widths are still in line with what we’re seeing in the industry right now.”

The drill also sports a new look, with a livery based on the limited edition models built for a while in 2024. It has black rims and white tanks, and that look will eventually become standard across the brand’s line.

In addition to the new drill, Bourgault adds yet another opener option to its portfolio, bringing the total number of opener choices available from the brand to six.

This one builds on the the ParaLink, Dual Shank design used on the PLDS, which the company has been offering. However, the new PLDX uses a more responsive 1:1 linkage configuration for improved ground contouring in the most uneven field conditions.

“This is our next evolution of the dual shank (opener),” says Henderson.

“It’s going to perform really well on uneven terrain.

“We’re still going to continue to use our PLDS. This is just another option for customers who want more consistent seed placement in uneven terrain. We need to provide an opener for all of our customers. Every customer is just a little bit different.”

With the wide range of configurations now on offer, Henderson notes the brand relies on dealers to point customers to the right opener for their needs.

The post Bourgault rolls out new drill, opener and upgrades to BiC system appeared first on Grainews.

The partnership pairs Geco’s predictive mapping tools with Gowan’s line of soil-applied herbicides in a collaboration aimed at helping farms take a more deliberate, patch-based approach to weed control over multiple seasons.

Why it matters: Seeing weed pressure ahead of emergence can make herbicide decisions more targeted and cost-effective.

Geco’s announcement includes two offerings tied to the partnership. The company is launching a new three-season predictive-mapping subscription, and growers who sign up through a Gowan representative will receive one additional field map at no extra cost.

“Our technology enables the question: If you could know where your most problematic patches are and where they are spreading to, what could you do differently? That’s what our technology makes possible,” said Greg Stewart, CEO of Geco.

How predictive mapping works

While blanket applications and spot sprayers respond to weeds already visible in-season, predictive mapping works ahead of emergence by using multi-year imagery to identify the areas most likely to develop patches. That allows farms to be proactive with treatments, rather than reacting after they’ve already gained ground.

A grower wanting a map begins by sharing a field boundary with Geco, often through a platform like John Deere Operations Center. If they don’t have a boundary available, Geco can make one for them. From there, Geco pulls every usable satellite image of that field from the last five growing seasons and runs them through tools designed to distinguish crop from weeds across the full season.

That multi-year history is what drives the prediction. Stewart said the key isn’t ultra-high-resolution imagery as much as having dozens of images per season and several years of history to reveal how weed patches shift over time.

The history shows where weeds tend to emerge early or flush late, and where patches persist. The resulting prescription can be exported straight into a sprayer, granular applicator, drill or variable-rate seeding tool.

“We look at a field, understand where weeds have been and where they’re going, and from there the farm decides what to do,” he said.

Geco has calibrated its system by comparing predictions against drone imagery, spot-sprayer data and human scouting across many fields.

Because the algorithms used to make these calibrations and predictions are proprietary, Stewart was tight-lipped about their inner workings. But while they play a big role in the process, he says the real challenge is fitting the technology into a farmer’s season.

“It’s not usually the math that breaks these technologies,” he said. “It’s how well you solve a real-world problem.”

That means making sure the system fits farm reality. It must mesh with timing at the end of the season and fold naturally into a grower’s weed-control plan. Those practical points tend to matter more than the complexity of the algorithm.

That’s also where partnerships come in. Predictive maps don’t work in isolation; they need to line up with the herbicides and practices growers are already using in the field.

Many early adopters were already using chemistries such as ethalfluralin and triallate (the active ingredients in Gowan’s Edge and Avadex) on their worst kochia and wild-oat patches. Those products are expensive to blanket across entire fields, and predictive maps help target them only where they’re most likely to deliver a return. So, the collaboration made sense for both companies.

But herbicides are only one part of the equation, said Stewart. Once the map is made, growers still need a plan for how to use it: which products to place where, when to increase seeding rates and how to tackle the “problem-child” areas that keep showing up year after year.

“It’s the agronomist and the farmer who put together that strategy,” he said.

How agronomists use the technology

One of those agronomists is Rob Warkentin of Davidson, Sask., who has helped several farms work predictive maps into their weed-control plans.

For Warkentin, predictive mapping works best on fields with well-defined patches like those same “problem-child” zones mentioned by Stewart. Once he receives a map, he reviews it with the grower to confirm the predicted zones match field history and scouting. He then adjusts rates, creates the prescription file and loads it into the sprayer or applicator.

There are still some practical limits — the kind Stewart refers to when he talks about real-world barriers. For example, some older spreaders can’t run prescription maps. Fortunately there is an easy workaround: growers can load the files into Google Maps. However, Warkentin says timing is a more stubborn problem for farmers.

“The best time to look at these maps is after harvest, but that’s also the busiest time of year,” he said. “By the time fall work is done, there’s very little time left to get maps made up and implemented.”

For farms using higher-value soil-applied products, the economics work well. Targeting only the worst 20 or 30 per cent of the field makes premium herbicides more economical and reduces total chemical use. Farms using lower-cost products may see less financial benefit, since the price of generating a prescription can outweigh the savings from variable-rate application.

However, Stewart noted that most growers use the maps to intensify control in the toughest patches — not necessarily to cut total inputs.

Either way, Warkentin says growers who used the maps were pleased with the results.

“The system isn’t perfect, and producers know there will be a few small misses,” he said. “But overall the people who’ve used it have been happy with the results.”

The science behind patch prediction

Stewart says much of Geco’s system grew out of earlier work in greenhouse pest modelling and even pandemic-spread research. The ebb and flow of insects in a greenhouse, or disease outbreaks during a pandemic, mirror how weed patches behave across a field, and understanding those patterns is key to making predictions.

For weed scientist Charles Geddes of AAFC Lethbridge, predictive mapping fits within a broader integrated weed management approach. He sees it helping growers make more deliberate decisions about where to invest their time, herbicides or cultural practices.

“I see this as another tool in the toolbox farmers have at their disposal,” he said.

Weed pressure is becoming harder to manage due to expanding herbicide resistance and weather variability that affects herbicide performance. Geddes says predictive mapping can help farmers plan where residual herbicides or added competition may provide the biggest returns. Using herbicides that stack multiple modes of action can be costly, especially on dryland farms, and applying them across full fields isn’t always justifiable.

“Predictive mapping lets farmers target herbicides or other practices where they’ll have the greatest impact,” Geddes said. “That can go a long way toward managing both costs and resistance.”

He also notes the technology adds some complexity. Prescription mapping requires growers to manage another layer of planning at a time of year when workloads are already heavy. That may limit adoption for some operations. But he expects interest to grow as farms gain experience and as more tools in crop production move toward AI-driven decision support.

Looking ahead

To date, Geco has evaluated more than 300 Prairie fields, building a clearer picture of how weed patches behave from year to year. The company has also been running pilot projects in the U.S., Australia, Europe and South America to discover how transferable the approach may be. But Stewart says the long-term focus remains firmly on Western Canada, where the vast majority of its customers currently reside.

That Prairie focus shapes where the technology goes next. Stewart says the company is now putting more emphasis on building partnerships with local retailers, agronomists and farmers to support longer-term, multi-season weed strategies. The Gowan partnership is just one example.

“We’re starting to partner with other retailers and independent agronomists across the region,” he said. “We’re really developing those relationships as much as we can these days.”

CORRECTION, Jan. 2, 2026: On page 5 in the Dec. 31, 2025 print edition, the final eight words of this article were accidentally chopped out at the end. We regret the error.

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Even my cow herd has been living in the cloud for well over a decade. I’ve been using the same herd-tracking software program since 2011, which is well before I even had a stable internet connection … or a smartphone … or children. Apparently, many things in our lives have changed, but our online herd platform has stayed the same!

When I was young, I kept track of my small cow herd in a coil-bound notebook. As I navigated university and learned to appreciate a good spreadsheet, I started managing herd records through Excel. Over time, we retained multiple daughters from many mama cows, and my spreadsheets got wider and longer than I could make sense of. That’s when I began investigating online options.

Today, there are dozens of programs on the market. Herdtrax (by Telus Agriculture), Go360 bioTrack and Performance Beef are just a few options.

I started with CattleMax, and I haven’t looked back. At the time, I naively didn’t consider important things such as data privacy, company stability and longevity, or adaptability to evolving scale or tag-reading platforms. Luckily for me, CattleMax has continued to adjust over time to meet (or beat) me where I’m at.

Like most programs, there is an annual fee based on the number of animals you track. With that comes a ton of online tutorials, real-time support, and a monthly newsletter where I often learn more efficient ways of tracking information that work for me.

On our farm, we record which dam gives birth to which calf. That information is quickly collected in our calving book at tagging. Later, I enter those animals into the program. From any individual animal record, you can add weights, treatment information, withdrawal times, weaning or sales data. If you retain the female as a replacement, you go on to enter her breeding, preg-checking and subsequent calving information. I can generate reports, still in my beloved Excel, that are easy to customize or print.

You can enter movements from pasture to pasture, and record group data quickly. For example, if I have a pen of replacement heifers that I vaccinate, I can enter the product administered, date, volume, location, person administering it and withdrawal dates just once for an entire group of cattle.

I enter data on a computer or iPhone. For one-time events such as treating a sick animal, I usually tap the info directly into my phone from the pasture. Larger data entry, such as entering our calf crop, I prefer to do at my desk. Avoid entering from a cozy couch where there’s a risk of dozing off and accidentally “moving” every animal you own to your spring heifer calf pasture. This is an oddly specific example, I know.

Time spent, time saved

There are a few downsides to stalking your cattle online. There is an investment in time and the program is only as good as the data you enter.

Our household jokes that CattleMax is little more than a “few clicks of the mouse,” but in reality, it requires a fair bit of time for data entry. On the flipside, we used to spend a long time sifting through papers and files to make lists or find one specific detail, whereas now the answer is at everyone’s fingertips.

As well, the program can help you make informed decisions, but it won’t make the decision for you. There is no data trend, production report or any other metric that beats the value of on-the-ground observation or just plain common sense.

For most of our ranch jobs, we prefer analog. Our saddle horses don’t require a password to operate, our old single-cab stick-shift was built before the internet existed, and our stock dogs don’t know the difference between gigabytes and chew toys.

Yet, after 15 years, I’m still happy with my herd-tracking software. I know where my cows have been, who they’ve been spending time with, who their baby daddies are, and whether they enjoy long walks on the pasture.

I guess there’s room for both.

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The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), a North American trade group representing off-road equipment makers, hosted a demonstration day for staff from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the Privy Council Office, the House of Commons, and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada.

“Demo Days give federal officials a unique, hands-on understanding of how precision agriculture tools are transforming Canadian farms,” said Alexander Russ, AEM’s senior advisor for global public policy, in a news release. “By seeing these tools in action and maintaining an open dialogue, regulators and industry can work together to realize the Canadian agriculture industry’s full potential.”

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On hand to represent the industry and discuss aspects of modern agricultural production with them were experts from Case IH, John Deere, Kubota, Kuhn, Lely and Salford. Those brands brought demonstration equipment and discussed technologies including precision spraying, self-repair strategies, automated dairy equipment, and fertilizer and tillage applications.

The intent was to show officials and those in charge of inking regulations affecting agricultural practices how growers can take advantage of innovative technologies to conserve resources and boost production efficiency.

“The event was designed to bridge the gap between policy and practice by providing insights on how farmers are doing more with less at a time when the agriculture industry in Canada must further modernize to meet growing international demand,” AEM said in a statement.

“By showcasing real-world applications of advanced ag technologies, it was a chance to see innovation in action and understand how modern tools are shaping the future of farming,” AEM representative Alexander Russ said via email. “The event was designed to give federal regulators a firsthand look at how the products they oversee are used on the farm, with a particular focus on the role of precision agriculture in driving efficiency while safeguarding conservation efforts.”

Asked if regulations were discussed around the use of large-scale drones to apply pesticides — a growing area of interest to farmers — Russ did not say.

However, AEM noted industry groups including AEM, CropLife Canada, Grain Farmers of Ontario and Fertilizer Canada used the occasion to highlight the policies and government incentives they want prioritized to boost productivity and encourage farmer uptake of modern agricultural best practices.

— Article updated to clarify attribution of comment.

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