John Deere is turning to artificial intelligence to help farmers address labor shortages and enable them to handle other tasks associated with their business.
“Think about every step a farmer does for corn and soybeans – whether that’s tillage, planting, spraying and harvesting,” Deere CFO Josh Jepsen said during an interview on “The Claman Countdown.” “We will make all of those autonomous here over really probably the balance of the decade.”
The U.S. is the second-leading soybean producer and exporter in the world. Meanwhile, corn accounts for more than 95% of the total feed grain production and use in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
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Through the creation of autonomous machines, Deere hopes to address customer challenges like job quality, access to skilled labor and the “ability to get the job done at the right time,” Jepsen said.
The company announced in January the creation of new autonomous tractors, an autonomous dump truck and an autonomous electric mower. The machines use computer vision, cameras and AI to navigate their environments, according to a press release from John Deere.
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“What we’ve found is, by bringing autonomy to tractors and tillage… it creates opportunities,” Jepsen said. “[Customers] can be at home, they can be with their family, they can be at high school football games, or they can do other more value-added jobs on the farm.”
Deere unveiled its first autonomous tractor – made with six pairs of stereo cameras which allow for obstacle detection – in 2022.
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“We really believe we’re going to build this out and build the full production system,” Jepsen said.
The tractor was created with the purpose of “feeding the world,” noting that global food demand is expected to increase by 50% by 2050, according to Deere.
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“There’s certainly a tremendous amount of opportunity for us,” Jepsen said. “And this is really the tip of the iceberg.”
