The Fuse Strategy: Partnership focus and openness through industry organizations

By Ben Craker

It is hard to read through any farming magazines without seeing an article about new technology or how big data is driving the next revolution in agriculture. The period we are in now is often described as a hinge point where the market will fundamentally shift as the result of new disruptive technology. The information age of farming is upon us with new players in the ag sector from places like Silicon Valley. The machines farmers use to grow the food and fiber to feed the world are advancing at a pace like never before with new technologies seeming to be announced almost daily. This change in the industry is what led AGCO to develop Fuse^TM Technologies, our next generation approach to precision agriculture.

A key focus of the Fuse strategy is partnering with industry leading companies. AGCO has a history of working with leading technology companies to integrate advanced technology components and features into our equipment. Examples include Raven rate and section control products on RoGators and TerraGators, Beeline for the original Auto-Guide system, Topcon in more recent years for machine guidance, terminals, and telematics. The Fuse strategy formalizes the partnering process and provides direction for how AGCO will partner with tech companies. This allows AGCO to focus on the development of the machine and a few core features, while still integrating best in class technology from innovators and leaders in the industry.

One of the most exciting developments in the partnering strategy has been the recent formation of the Intelligent Agricultural Solutions (IAS) joint venture with Appareo. This unique to the industry partnership will provide AGCO direct access to a leading technology company to help in the development of advanced sensors and communications while helping to fuel future research and development. The capabilities of the IAS team and their passion for creating new technologies that will fundamentally change the precision farming industry are very exciting and work has already begun on some truly innovative ideas.

AGCO is also participating in Farm2050 with companies like Google, DuPont and Flextronics to help AgTech startups get access to capital, design, manufacturing, distribution and general industry knowledge to bring new technologies to the market to help meet the world’s growing demand for food and fiber. The mission of the group is to enable new startups to quickly get to market and really accelerate technology in the ag industry. Farm2050 is a little different than the traditional venture capital group in that the participants are providing something other than just funding to the startups – companies like AGCO are providing agriculture industry expertise. AGCO’s participation in this group is a great example of how we are looking for the next generation of technology to integrate into our machines as part of the Fuse strategy.

Participation in industry organizations is also a good example of how the Fuse open approach and partnering strategy is benefiting the industry. Through groups like the Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) and AgGateway, AGCO is playing an active role in making farmers’ lives easier. AGCO employees have worked alongside employees from some of our fiercest competitors to standardize machine to machine communication through the ISO11783 standard. Since the original roll out of the standard and introduction of ISOBUS equipment the group has continued to improve on the standard and will be launching additional tools at the SIMA show in France at the end of the month, delivering independent verification of functionalities within the ISO11783 standard.

Similar work is going on within the AgGateway group where people from a wide variety of companies involved in the ag industry, from seed and chemical companies to software providers and ag retailers, have come together to help advance eBusiness in agriculture. A key part of that is making sure everyone is speaking the same language. The AgGateway Precision Ag Council, of which AGCO is an active member, is building on the ISO11783 standard to help make it easier for famers to manage all the data they log on their machines or create in a Farm Information Management System (FMIS). Today almost any grower can tell you about the difficulties of getting one brand to talk to another or trying to coordinate information between different FMIS platforms. Later this year AgGateway plans to roll out a tool to help streamline this process and enable growers to really start creating meaningful information they can use to drive fact based decisions in their precision farming operations.

So whether is it is leveraging long standing partnerships with precision farming companies, looking for new innovative technologies to integrate into AGCO machines or participating with groups working to standardize the data flow in the precision agriculture world, it is an exciting time to be involved in precision agriculture. By focusing on partnerships and openness, in addition to its own technological advancements, AGCO is positioned to be a leader in the greatest advancement in agriculture since the introduction of the internal combustion engine.

To learn more about the Fuse strategy, and read our latest news and announcements, visit agcotechnologies.com.

Ben Craker is a Manager for AGCO’s Advanced Technology Solutions group, focusing on Global Partnerships and Standards for Fuse Technologies. Connect with Ben on Twitter @crakerb.