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See & Spray and the Herbicide BillNarrow moat
Deere & Company (DE) — moat facet
See & Spray, bought for $284 million in 2017, saves farmers more than half their herbicide and is on about a third of North American sprayers on order.
The clearest proof that precision technology sells machines is See & Spray. Cameras on the boom distinguish weeds from crop and spray only the weeds. On the third-quarter call Deere said customers were using it on significantly more acres "while achieving more than 50% herbicide savings," and that current early-order trends suggest factory adoption "will nearly double, with the technology included on about one-third of North American sprayers on order"1.
The origin is a purchase. In September 2017 Deere bought Blue River Technology for $284 million in cash2, at the time a small start-up. Nine years later the technology is a selling point on a large share of a high-value machine.
The economics are why it sells in a downturn. Deere says that "seed, fertilizer and crop protection products" are roughly 70% of a farmer's operating costs3. A sprayer that halves one of those bills pays for itself on a large farm without any help from crop prices, which is exactly the argument a dealer needs when corn is cheap.
The moat is that See & Spray is built into Deere's own sprayers, trained on images Deere's machines collected, and supported by Deere's dealers. A rival can build cameras; it is harder to build the training data and the installed base at the same time.
The planter is following the sprayer. Management said it is seeing "strong momentum and consistent adoption patterns" in its next generation of planter technologies, and that its ExactEmerge planters, launched over a decade ago, are still drawing demand4. Seeding and spraying are the two operations where precision saves most input.
Its limit is that the farmer keeps the savings and Deere is paid through the machine price. Factory adoption short of a third of North American sprayers at the close of the early-order programme would mean the most persuasive technology Deere has has stalled in its home market.
Factory adoption expected to nearly double.
Whether the technology on the machine still lets Deere raise prices at the trough; negative realization in fiscal 2027 would mean it no longer does.
Source: Deere & Company Form 10-Q, Q3 FY2026 ↗- ReportedOn the third-quarter call Deere said customers were using it on significantly more acres "while achieving more than 50% herbicide savings," and that current early-order trends suggest factory adoption "will nearly double, with the technology included on about one-third of North American sprayers on order".Deere & Company third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, FactSet corrected transcript - engaged and highly engaged acres, See & Spray adoption, early order programs, construction backlogs, tariffs, equipment cash flow guidance and the FTC settlement - precision technology: engaged acres, See & Spray and SmartGrade. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 20 August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedIn September 2017 Deere bought Blue River Technology for $284 million in cash, at the time a small start-up.Deere & Company Form 10-K for fiscal 2017 - the Blue River Technology acquisition for $284 million (September 2017) and the Wirtgen Group acquisition for EUR 4,475 million, about $5,327 million (1 December 2017). — FY2017 · publ. December 2017 · source ↗
- ReportedDeere says that "seed, fertilizer and crop protection products" are roughly 70% of a farmer's operating costs.Deere & Company third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, FactSet corrected transcript - engaged and highly engaged acres, See & Spray adoption, early order programs, construction backlogs, tariffs, equipment cash flow guidance and the FTC settlement - precision technology: engaged acres, See & Spray and SmartGrade. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 20 August 2026 · source ↗
- ReportedManagement said it is seeing "strong momentum and consistent adoption patterns" in its next generation of planter technologies, and that its ExactEmerge planters, launched over a decade ago, are still drawing demand.Deere & Company third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings call, FactSet corrected transcript - engaged and highly engaged acres, See & Spray adoption, early order programs, construction backlogs, tariffs, equipment cash flow guidance and the FTC settlement - precision technology: engaged acres, See & Spray and SmartGrade. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 20 August 2026 · source ↗