John Deere Acquires Sentera: Does it Make Sense?

Index

1. Overview

2. See & Spray Brand Ladder

3. Are Drones Ready for Prime Time?

4. Acquisition Price?

5. Final Thoughts

Overview

John Deere Acquires Sentera to Integrate Aerial Field Scouting - Newswire

See & Spray Brand Ladder

In Sentera to Launch Precision Weed Management Service: Is it a See and Spray Killer? I highlighted some of the bull and bear cases around Sentera’s recently rebranded SMARTSCRIPT Weeds precision weed management solution. The product uses aerial imaging (drone flight) and artificial intelligence to detect weeds and create a map to generate sprayer prescriptions for herbicide applications, with capabilities to do this in less than a 24 hour turn around from drone flight to prescription creation.

The positives for farmers using the Sentera solution relative to a full stack See & Spray system include:

• better understanding of product volumes needed

• lower up front cost

• and improved speed per acre for the spray applicator.

There are however shortcomings to the system, including:

• limited number of sprayers it can access (~15% of the market has individual nozzle control according to a previous conversation with the Sentera team)

• risk of boom sway (integrated systems have reinforced booms to improve spray accuracy)

• and ultimately turn-around time challenges (eg: rain in-between drone flight and map turn around).

Sentera as a stand alone company has these challenges while needing to acquire customers. These limitations were hinderances to long term success for Sentera with the SMARTSCRIPT offering.

However, Sentera’s SMARTSCRIPT Weeds as part of a See & Spray brand ladder with dealer network access holds logic:

Looking ahead within Deere, there is upside for both companies:

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