John Deere<\/b> is going through an early access program for certain customers to test the company\u2019s new agriculture connectivity solution with Starlink<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Via Satellite<\/i> spoke with Michael Kool, John Deere senior product manager of Connectivity, at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, this week to get an update on the Starlink rollout. Announced in January, John Deere will sell an aftermarket kit with a ruggedized Starlink terminal and a cellular modem to connect agricultural machines to the company\u2019s farm management system.<\/p>\n
Kool said John Deere has paying customers in the U.S. and Brazil who purchased a limited amount of Starlink terminals and kits as part of the early access program. Deere is working with specific equipment dealers in certain regions to trial the solution. <\/p>\n
Some customers have used the solution during harvest this year for in-field data sharing, to track the logistics of their fleet and connect their mobile devices to the Starlink solution to make phone calls to help run the operations. <\/p>\n
In Brazil, the product has \u201cexceeded expectations,\u201d he said. The connectivity gives farmers the ability to use remote display access, giving an equipment dealer access into the cab without making a visit to the machine, which may be hours away from the nearest dealership. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re in the state of Mato Grosso, which is the largest producing state in Brazil, a dealer could be seven hours away from that machine and quickly remote display into that machine,\u201d Kool said. This allows dealers to \u201ctroubleshoot the issue they\u2019re having, to get them back up and running without a visit or any downtime. It\u2019s impactful.\u201d <\/p>\n
Brazil is a key market John Deere is targeting for the Starlink product because cellular connectivity is not widespread in rural areas. In the U.S., Kool said the solution will be most applicable in states in the West like Montana, near national parks and mountainous regions where the topography impedes cellular coverage. <\/p>\n
The program has also given John Deere insight into how to improve the solution \u2014 such as how to better ruggedize the mounting bracket and make it \u201cfoolproof\u201d for dealers to install, Kool said. <\/p>\n
Yet the company was not promoting the Starlink solution to its customers during the Farm Progress Show in Iowa, which attracts thousands of growers and producers from the U.S. and around the world. Kool explained the company prefers to highlight products that are currently in production and plans to highlight the solution at future trade shows. <\/p>\n
Case IH, another agricultural machinery company working on a similar satellite solution with Intelsat, showcased a 3D printed version of its upcoming satellite terminal as well as a brief description of the product for attendees. <\/p>\n
John Deere plans to start production on the solution in November. The company worked closely with Starlink to engineer changes to the Starlink terminal for this application, and Starlink will manufacture the product, with the changes. <\/p>\n
In terms of whether or Starlink\u2019s agreement with John Deere is exclusive or if Starlink can sell the modified terminal to other customers, Kool was unable to share specifics of the confidential agreement. But he said the company was \u201csmart\u201d going into the deal and the contract is \u201cmutually beneficial.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a really cool experience seeing how our two teams blend together and ultimately deliver a solution that is a first of its kind in our vertical,\u201d Kool said of collaborating with Starlink through this process. <\/p>\n
Kool said Deere is finalizing the pricing for the terminal and connectivity service. The hardware will have a one-time cost, and the data plan will be unlimited. Pricing will vary between countries. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to make that [hardware] a lean price that really sets the market and helps us to proliferate that solution with our customers. We want them to get on the machines. We want them to adapt and fully utilize connectivity,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
In addition, customers will have the option to purchase terminals for each of their machines for planting, spraying, and harvest, etc. \u2014 or to move one terminal across their machines. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen varying instances where customers want to buy one for every machine, because their operation could really fully utilize that. Or, if they want to get into it [with] baby steps, they can order one [terminal] and move it across. We\u2019ll make it possible for them to do that,\u201d Kool said. <\/p>\n
John Deere has talked about how the Starlink solution will help the company meet its goal of a fully autonomous farming system by 2030. Kool said the tests have shown how the solution will help customers adopt more tech. <\/p>\n
\u201cNot only does it help them to be more productive today with the existing tech that they have on their machines \u2014 but as they want to grow their tech stack with new displays, new hardware sets, autonomy, See & Spray, etc. \u2014 it\u2019s going to make the solutions that much more robust and seamless to operate,\u201d Kool said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Deere is going through an early access program for certain customers to test the company\u2019s new agriculture connectivity solution with Starlink. Via Satellite spoke with Michael Kool, John Deere senior product manager of Connectivity, at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, this week to get an update on the Starlink rollout. Announced in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}