John Deere announces strategic partnership with SpaceX

Deere & Company announced on Tuesday that it has entered into an industry-first agreement with SpaceX to provide satellite communications (SATCOM) to farmers.

It said that the Starlink network will enable rural farmers with limited connectivity to make full use of precision agriculture technologies and thereby improve their efficiency and profitability.

The company explained that the SATCOM service will connect both new and existing machines via the satellite internet service and robust satellite terminals.

This will allow farmers to benefit from autonomous equipment, real-time data sharing, remote diagnostics, enhanced self-repair solutions, and machine-to-machine communication.

Deere & Company said that to activate the service its dealers will install a Starlink terminal on compatible machines, along with a 4G LTE JDLink modem to connect the machine to the John Deere Operations Center.

The SATCOM solution will initially be available through a limited release in the US and Brazil starting in the second half of 2024.