05 September 2026, Moline, IL: John Deere said adoption of its See & Spray weed detection technology is nearly doubling year over year, with the system now included on roughly one third of North American sprayers currently on order, the company reported in an update tied to last week’s Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.
Deanna Kovar, president of Deere’s Worldwide Agriculture and Turf Division, said customers using See & Spray are seeing herbicide savings of more than 50 percent, a figure that has become a central selling point for the technology as farmers look for ways to trim input costs without sacrificing weed control. See & Spray uses cameras and machine vision to identify weeds in real time and apply herbicide only where needed, rather than spraying entire fields uniformly.
The company also reported strong uptake of its next generation planter technology heading into the 2027 model year. More than 40 percent of North American planters on order now include Deere’s advanced offerings, a package that combines ExactRate, ExactShot, and FurrowVision systems designed to place seed, fertilizer, and crop protection products with greater precision at planting time. Deere first introduced its ExactEmerge planter technology more than a decade ago and has continued building on that platform with successive generations of sensors and control systems.
Beyond individual product lines, Deere pointed to growth in its broader connected equipment network as evidence that precision agriculture adoption is accelerating across its customer base. The company said more than 520 million acres are now engaged through its connected platform, spanning nearly 1.2 million connected machines worldwide. Of that total, more than 190 million acres qualify as highly engaged, meaning farmers are actively using multiple precision features rather than simply having connected hardware installed. Deere described the growth in highly engaged acres as double digit for the year.
The update comes as equipment manufacturers across the industry navigate a prolonged sales downturn, with tractor and combine sales in North America down sharply from peak levels reached earlier in the decade. Deere and rivals including CNH Industrial and AGCO have all pointed to precision technology and software revenue as areas of relative strength even as new equipment sales soften, arguing that farmers are more willing to invest in upgrades that demonstrably cut input costs than in new iron during a period of tighter margins.
Industry analysts have noted that adoption figures like these matter increasingly to how investors value equipment manufacturers, since recurring technology and subscription revenue tends to be viewed as more stable than cyclical equipment sales. Deere has previously said it expects its precision agriculture business to become a larger share of overall company revenue over time.
For farmers, the practical appeal of See & Spray and similar tools lies in the direct cost savings on herbicide, one of the largest variable input expenses in row crop production, particularly as chemical prices have climbed in recent seasons.
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