Autonomous tractors and electric tractors will be among "a lot of exciting new products" John Deere has coming to Western Australia.
That was the message to local farmers at the AFGRI Equipment display at last week's Dowerin Machinery Field Days from John Deere managing director Australia/New Zealand, Luke Chandler.
On his first visit to the Dowerin event, Mr Chandler introduced John Deere's local field team, confirmed "AFGRI is a key partner" for John Deere and outlined some of the technology that will be coming to Australia.
"John Deere has a lot of new exciting products coming that really fit the market here," Mr Chandler said.
"John Deere has commercially available autonomous tractors out in the market already in the US at the moment, mainly doing tillage jobs.
"But we are excited to continue to develop that and look to bringing both autonomous and electric tractors on to the Australian market in the next few years."
Mr Chandler said John Deere was also "working really hard to try and get to a green-on-green solution" with its See & Spray weed spraying technology - which is currently green-on-brown in Australia.
"I quote Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 'The pace of change has never been this fast and yet it will never be this slow again'," he said.
"Certainly when we look at everything coming at us, there is a lot of new product coming.
"But it is going to continue coming faster.
"Hopefully for you that will mean solutions so you can do your jobs better.
"Everything we do at John Deere is around trying to make our customers more profitable, more productive and more sustainable."
Mr Chandler said the See & Spray technology was a clear example.
He said they had been able to prove they can reduce herbicide usage by about 80 per cent using this technology.
"So, a massive impact to financials, but extrapolate that out over every acre a John Deere sprayer goes across around the world - from Brazil, to Ireland, Germany to WA - we are saving chemicals by around 80pc around the world, so agriculture is helping improve the environment dramatically," Mr Chandler said.
"We are excited."
AFGRI Equipment Australia chairman Patrick Roux said 2023 was a celebratory year for AFGRI.
"AFGRI (in South Africa) is a company with a long and proud history - we are 100-years-old this year - there are not a lot of companies that can claim 100 years," Mr Roux said.
"In 1963, our company signed an agreement with John Deere to exclusively distribute its products in South Africa.
"So, 60 years with John Deere this year and October will be (our anniversary of) 20 years in Australia.
"In the past 20 years, WA has developed to become more than 50 per cent of our equipment business.
"We have 48 branches across the world now and our footprint includes the north of South Africa, the Western Cape portion of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and WA.
"We hope to grow that footprint in future."
Mr Roux said AFGRI Equipment Australia had also been "like a pilot dealer" when in 2019 it agreed to market John Deere Construction and Forestry equipment alongside its agricultural equipment.
A similar agreement with John Deere Construction and Forestry was subsequently signed by AFGRI in South Africa, he said.
"Our company was started by farmers as a co-op to jointly bargain on inputs and the handling of their grain.
"So, our roots are deeply in agriculture and our theme for our 100th year is 'We are your agricultural partner for life'.
"We've been partners with many generations of farmers across the world and we hope to continue that process in WA as well."
