Emerging trends in ag equipment: it’s all about efficiency

By Nathan Webber

There are two major trends in the agricultural equipment world in 2024: tech-driven precision equipment and big-ticket equipment. These two might seem like they’re opposed—big tires vs. tiny sensors—but savvy farmers can use both to achieve high yields.

Precision and positioning

Precision spraying technology enables growers to save up to 50 to 70 percent on crop protection chemicals. I’ve talked with WEED-IT about the advances in precision spraying since they started business in 1999. Their newest products allow farmers to broadcast spray, spot spray plants and weeds and use any combination of these with just one sprayer. At the same time, that sprayer can apply crop protection products and map weeds or plants.

We’re seeing huge investment in GPS and AI tech for agricultural use, too. Late last year, CNH Industrial purchased global satellite navigation company Hemisphere GNSS for $175 million. This was interesting to me, and others in the ag equipment sphere, because of Hemisphere’s subsidiary Outback Guidance, which sells agricultural autosteer products in North America and Australia.

And there’s advancement at every level of positioning systems. I’ve seen great success in the field from Trimble Positioning system’s automatic stream switching. It allows farmers to minimize downtime by increasing rural connectivity. Waiting for RTX corrections may soon be a thing of the past!?

Bigger equipment

Even drones are getting bigger. Larger drones can spray more land, quickly.

But at the largest scale of ag equipment are the big three—John Deere, Case IH and New Holland—all released new and bigger combines. These machines are all made with farmer’s bottom lines in mind. They move faster, put more quality grain in the tank, and have long run times.

Case IH even called 2024 “the year of the combine” at an industry preview of its AF11 combine. And Deere’s S7 combine is seen as setting the groundwork for future autonomy systems.

John Deere also released the new 9RX Series Tractors. They increase productivity by 100 acres per day compared to previous models, according to Deere. The 2025 models of these behemoths just became available to order in late March.

Whether you’re in the market for big equipment or precision solutions, efficiency is the name of the game. This is just a fraction of the ag solutions I’ve seen at shows this year.?Get in touch to discuss the right equipment for you, and how OneCap can make that equipment affordable.

Nathan Webber is the National Accounts Program Development Manager?at Meridian OneCap.