Ag Leader, John Deere enter licensing agreement

In October, Ag Leader reached an agreement with John Deere for the technologies and licenses needed to manufacturer and sell Precision Planting SpeedTube, vSet, vDrive and DeltaForce. This agreement is contingent on John Deere finalizing its acquisition of Precision Planting from Monsanto.

Ag Leader plans to integrate these technologies with its own SeedCommand planting technologies and its InCommand displays. According to Ag Leader officials, the move will help the company expand its planting offerings and enable higher planting speeds. Because of that, farmers will have additional equipment and technology choices in the market to maximize their productivity and efficiency.

"Ag Leader is continuously looking for opportunities to expand our line of precision farming technologies," according to Ag Leader president Al Myers. "When this prospect arose, we knew it was worth looking into for our customers and dealers, as high-speed planting is an emerging precision agriculture technology."

According to Myers, Ag Leader will remain an independent competitor in precision ag, offering planting equipment products with higher speed capabilities as an integrated piece of SeedCommand, its own planting technology platform. But Myers adds the licensing agreement will add additional precision products that will expand Ag Leader's "year-round, best-in-class solutions from planting through harvest."