CNH Industrial Precision Spraying Strategy: Leaving Out the High End?

Last week, I read an interview with CNH Industrial CTO Jay Schroeder where he shared a notable comment surrounding their green-on-green initiatives:

CNH Industrial has been very limited in sharing their view of precision spraying as it pertains to green-on-green, especially relative to John Deere and AGCO.

They recently announced SenseApply technology, an enhancement of their Augmenta acquisition that consists of a single cab-mounted camera system that offers multiple in-season uses including: 

• Selective Spray 

  • Green-on-Brown Spot Spray offers upgraded weed management

  • Base + Boost applies a consistent base rate over the entire boom while boosting individual nozzle sections to a higher rate when passing over areas with higher weed pressure

• Live Variable Rate Application for:

  • Nitrogen

  • Harvest Aid

  • Plant Growth Regulator

  • Fungicide

SenseApply technology includes lifetime VRA use and a one-time activation fee for Selective Spray— they are not publicly announcing the pricing until it officially launches for the 2026 season, but based on Augmenta pricing, it is likely in the $25,000 per system range with guesses that the selective spray upgrade at another $25,000, coming out to somewhere around $50,000 for the full system and selective spray unlock.

The system as is can provide great value to farmers— particularly in small grain and oilseed, but midwest crops too.

Notably, SenseApply does not include green-on-green (beyond “Boost”). I asked CNH if there is going to be any effort to expand the SenseApply system out to include more cameras and AI to get towards green-on-green and the answer was effectively no.

They also do not have extensive mapping and data capture capabilities with the SenseApply camera system— it is primarily for delivering base-line VR capabilities. The future of precision tools, in my opinion, includes establishing the sprayer, as the agronomic swiss army knife to capture incremental crop information, map that information and act on a more precise level to deliver better outcomes across input segments.

That means that if the point of differentiation for a sprayer becomes the on-board precision capabilities, the sprayers/companies without those premium capabilities are at risk of being commoditized.

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