Blue River Technology keeps coming up in our conversations. It's been about seven years since the acquisition. Would you say the integration has gone smoothly, and how would you describe the relationship with the company?

The Blue River acquisition was relatively large and different. Some of the attractiveness of Blue River was that they were working in a space where Deere has a commanding market share, specifically in the spraying of crop protection products. Deere is number one in terms of acres covered for crop protection spraying and has great large sprayers.

Blue River Technology keeps coming up in our conversations. It's been about seven years since the acquisition. Would you say the integration has gone smoothly, and how would you describe the relationship with the company?

It took some time, but a couple of years ago, Deere launched the See & Spray Ultimate, which allows for spot spraying of weeds in a growing crop. The cameras can distinguish between the crop and weeds by the phenology of the plants and somewhat by the placement of the plant. If a field is planted, the crop should be in rows, and a plant growing outside of the row is likely a weed, although not 100% certain due to possible planting anomalies.

So, is the technology getting better from your perspective? And is there a threshold at which it takes off because it works, and farmers must use it to stay competitive?

I'm not sure how much better the solution will become. It's already quite effective. John Deere and Blue River Technology have invested significant time and money into it, and it works. However, the biggest drawback is that it doesn't save enough money to be highly attractive as an initial investment because many fields don't have significant weed pressure.