Big news from Verdant Robotics this week as they announced the close of a $46.5 million series A funding round – one of the largest investments in ag robotics to date. Verdant Co-founder Curtis Garner says the funding will enable the company to scale its fleet, build more machines and cover more acres. Verdant’s robot can simultaneously weed, fertilize, and treat plants for pests and disease with its sub-millimeter accurate spraying technology.

In this episode of On the Record, the latest Dealer Sentiments Report shows that dealers inventories of both new and used equipment are improving despite being too low. In the Technology Corner Noah Newman talks with Verdant Robotics plans to scale its fleet. Also in this episode, Titan Machinery reports record results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2023 and Farm Credit Canada forecasts tight machinery inventories well into 2024.

Precision Planting’s new sprayer technology ReClaim is officially available to buy in the U.S. and Canada. We first learned about the product about a year ago at the company’s annual winter conference. ReClaim is a boom recirculation system designed to make sure farmers get their boom fully primed with the right concentration of products without having to spray a drop of chemical on the ground, eliminating crop damage and hot spots at the edge of the field.

We got an up-close look at the machine in action at the John Deere Training Center — the ST16 Drawn model, one of five different units available. Each offers a variety of shanks, coulters and row-spacings. I caught up with Deere Product Tillage Manager Steve Sporrer and asked him why the company is re-entering the strip-till game, and how the new unit pairs with their precision technology. 

We’re taking the Technology Corner on the road to FIRA USA 2022, the premiere ag robotics and technology forum at the Convention Center in downtown Fresno, California. When you walk in, the first thing that catches your eye is GUSS – the autonomous sprayer for orchards and vineyards.

In this episode of On the Record, we take a look at how the publicly traded OEMs stack up when looking at R&D spend as a percentage of ag equipment sales. Noah Newman joins us from the FIRA show in Fresno, Calif., in the Technology Corner to discuss GUSS Automation. Also in this episode: Claas talks about their dealer network and we look at the first 9-months of large ag equipment sales for 2022.

Talking today about AMVAC’s SIMPAS system which is taking prescription application to a new level. Retailers and farmers got an up-close look at the new technology during a special summit in Rockford, Illinois this past week.

In this week's episode we discuss grower sentiment and their intentions to make large equipment purchases as well as dealers' sales outlook for 2022 and 2023. In the Technology Corner, Michaela Paukner takes a closer look at Greeneye's precision sprayer system. Ben Thorpe also brings us a report from the Farm Progress Show about Versatile and Cummins partnership on a hydrogen engine. And finally, we introduce a new feature to end the show — AEI DataPoints. This feature is a quick highlight of a noteworthy table or chart that the ag equipment industry needs to know.