AGCO Corporation has launched PTx, a new brand representing its precision ag portfolio. PTx combines precision ag technologies from the cornerstones of AGCO's tech stack: Precision Planting and its newest joint venture (JV), PTx Trimble.
AGCO Corporation and Trimble announced the closing of their joint venture (JV) transaction, known as PTx Trimble, on April 1. The JV combines Trimble's precision agriculture business and AGCO's JCA Technologies. As part of the JV, AGCO acquired an 85 percent stake in PTx Trimble, and Trimble will hold a 15 percent stake.
AGCO stated that the strategic alignment of these brands will facilitate the rapid growth of its technology transformation and will support the future development and distribution of next-generation ag technologies for farmers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
PTx will serve farmers around the world through three go-to-market approaches. Specialized precision ag dealers will help farmers retrofit almost any make or vintage of equipment they already own with the latest technologies. PTx will also expand its relationships with more than 100 OEM partners that can integrate products from the PTx portfolio directly at the factory. Similarly, new machines from AGCO's brands – Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra – will also offer factory-fit technology from the PTx portfolio.
Seth Crawford, senior vice president and general manager PTx, leads the new organization.
"We believe technology should give farmers the flexibility to work their way across brands and throughout the crop cycle," said Crawford. "Through the PTx portfolio offerings within Precision Planting and PTx Trimble, we'll provide seamlessly compatible, powerfully simple precision ag solutions. We know farming is easier when platforms speak to each other – and when those systems are designed and supported by experts who understand farmers. That's what PTx is promising our customers around the world."
Andrew Sunderman has been named general manager of PTx Trimble. Keith Crow will continueto lead Precision Planting asgeneral manager. ●
Construction has begun on the National Center for Resilient and Regenerative Precision Agriculture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) Nebraska Innovation Campus.
The state-of-the-art research center is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, UNL and Nebraska Innovation Campus. The center will focus on the challenges and opportunities in agricultural innovation for the 21st century.
According to information provided by UNL, the center will focus on key research areas to address technology, tools and data in the agriculture industry, and to promote sustainable, resilient and highly efficient agriculture practices.
The National Center for Resilient and Regenerative Precision Agriculture will be a US$160 million USDA laboratory. It is expected to double the USDA’s science and support staff presence at UNL. The first phase will feature 15,000 square feet of greenhouses and 10,000 square feet of headhouse space. It will connect to the Greenhouse Innovation Center at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
The new greenhouse space will allow ARS to perform research on wheat, barley, sorghum, forage and bioenergy grasses, and other crops. “Research on how these plants respond to emerging pests and pathogens under a full range of environmental conditions will empower scientists to make cutting-edge discoveries with the goal of developing climate-resilient crops for the U.S. agriculture industry,” stated UNL in a news release.
Once fully completed, the agriculture research complex will function as a central hub for multidisciplinary experts, scientists and engineers who will collaborate with industry and producers to improve water and food security, increase the resilience of agricultural landscapes and enhance agricultural profitability.
“The complex problems we face today in the ag industry require unprecedented levels of collaboration to overcome. This facility will help us achieve that goal, aligning resources and magnifying impressive impacts on agriculture nationwide,” said UNL Chancellor Rodney D. Bennett. “This national center will becomethe model for excellence inag-focused innovation.” ●
A photonics expert with UK-based Aston University has received a Royal Society Industry Fellowship grant to help make crop monitoring easier and cheaper with remote sensing technology.
Dr. Sergey Sergeyev of Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT) has received £174,000 to improve polarimetric LIDAR, a technology that uses light to remotely observe plants.
LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) involves light sent from a transmitter which is reflected from objects. Devices with this technology can be placed on drones and flown over crop fields to provide real-time information about crop health to help farmers forecast the success of their crops.
Polarimetric synthetic-aperture radars (SARs) and polarimetric LiDARs are the most advanced, cost-effective sensors for crop monitoring. They are often used onboard aircraft and satellites and have been in use for three decades. However, current polarimetric LIDAR systems have low spatial resolution, a slow measurement speed and use expensive components that limit their cost effectiveness.
Sergeyev will be working in collaboration with Salford-based digital and AI farming company Fotenix to meet farmers' need for a cost-effective solution to check if their plants are adequately watered and disease-free. The team will aim to advance recently patented AIPT technology of the polarimetric LIDAR, making it affordable for farmers in the UK and worldwide.
The project, called POLIDAR, will run from 2024 to 2025.
Sergeyev said: “Aston University’s patented technique will be modified by using a laser emitting four time-delayed pulse trains with different states of polarisation. By comparing the input states of polarisation and states of polarisation of light reflected from plants, it will reveal information about the distance to plants and plants' leaf texture, such as water stress and pathogen infection. Unlike state-of-the-art solutions we suggest an all-fibre design with a minimum number of bulk components that reduces the footprint, cost and weight.”
The announcement coincides with UNESCO Day of Light which marks the role light plays in science, culture and art, education and sustainable development. It is held on 16 May every year, the anniversary of the first successful operation of a laser. ●
xFarm Technologies, a tech company in the digitalization of agriculture, announced the integration of Spain-based Greenfield Technologies and France-based Space Sense.
It is expected the integration will allow xFarm Technologies to establish itself as a leader in the key areas of regenerative agriculture and geospatial AI.
Greenfield Technologies is a company based in Badajoz (Spain) that specializes in soil characterization, while SpaceSense is a pioneering company based in Paris that provides climate intelligence services using satellite data and artificial intelligence.
"Thanks to the complementarity of technology and expertise between xFarm Technologies and the teams at SpaceSense and Greenfield Technologies, we will work to provide our customers with new services related to climate intelligence and artificial intelligence-based agronomic support,” said Matteo Vanotti, CEO of xFarm Technologies.
In a news release, xFarm noted that Greenfield and SpaceSense represent “a significant acceleration in the international path that xFarm Technologies has been following over the last two years, first with its presence in the Iberian Peninsula, then in France, Germanyand Poland.”
Miguel Córdoba, CEO of Greenfield Technologies, commented that the partnership would “strengthen our ability to enhance our solutions, such as agricultural soil characterization, support for relevant crops of the Mediterranean region like tomatoes, olives, or almonds.”
Meanwhile, Jyotsna Budideti, CEO of SpaceSense, said by “uniting the company’s geospatial AI prowess with xFarm Technologies’ agtech excellence, we aim to strengthen our Climate Intelligence services to empower farmers worldwide.” ●
Carbon Robotics, an AI-powered farming company, has received an investment from NVentures, NVIDIA’s venture capital arm.
Financial details of this latest deal were not released. However, Carbon Robotics raised $43 million in new capital in 2023, bringing its total funding by February 2024 to $80 million since its founding in 2018.
Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder combines computer vision, AI deep learning technology, robotics and lasers to identify and eliminate weeds. LaserWeeders are in operation by growers across the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.
Leveraging the power of 24 NVIDIA GPUs, the LaserWeeder processes 4.7 million high-resolution images per hour, offering AI-driven plant detection and identification to target and eliminate weeds with lasers. The company claims the LaserWeeder can eradicate 5,000 weeds per minute with sub-millimetre precision and utilizes the world’s most diverse and fastest-growing agricultural image dataset, comprising 25 million labeled plants and more than 30,000 crop and weed models. The LaserWeeder also captures real-time metrics on crops and weeds and sends them to the cloud, providing farmers with actionable visual insights into their field farming operations at any time, from anywhere.
“With this investment, and using the power of AI, we can help farmers create farms and food systems of the future that are more productive, efficient, healthy and profitable,” said Paul Mikesell, CEO and founder of Carbon Robotics.
In February, Carbon Robotics introduced the Track LaserWeeder, a new model of the LaserWeeder, and two software enhancements: spatial data intelligence in the Carbon Ops Center and multi-language support in the iPad operator app.
The Track LaserWeeder offers a custom track system built in collaboration with Soucy and GK Machine, and was designed with growers to extend the LaserWeeder’s usability across diverse soil types, including muck soil. By equally distributing the LaserWeeder’s weight, the tracks minimize compaction and allow the machine to enter fields earlier in the season despite challenging conditions. The first Track LaserWeeders were complete and staged for delivery beginning in March 2024. ●
