By Jacob Bunge
DuPont Co.'s (DD) agricultural-seed unit struck a partnership
with machinery maker Deere & Co. (DE) to sell data to farmers
to help them increase productivity, the latest push in so-called
precision farming.
The companies' move to use wireless technology to provide faster
soil analysis and planting advice aims to help farmers make earlier
decisions about buying fertilizer and positioning crops to boost
harvests, the companies said Friday.
The effort follows Monsanto Co.'s (MON) $930 million deal last
month to buy farm-analytics firm Climate Corp., part of a strategy
by the world's largest seed company by sales to expand into data
services. Seed companies pitch high-tech analysis and prediction
tools as another way for farmers to get more crops from their land
and mitigate the impact of bad weather.
The collaboration between Deere and DuPont Pioneer will rely on
Deere machinery to collect information on crop yields, moisture and
location, which is then transmitted to Deere-operated servers. If
farmers sign on to the program, an analyst for Pioneer will examine
the data and deliver reports that could help farmers plan seed and
fertilizer purchases. Previously, combines collected such
information on data cards that needed to be handed off to Pioneer
analysts in order to prepare reports.
Pioneer and Deere expect to roll out the service next year.
Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com
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