One of the highlights for every visitor to Agritechnica is the John Deere exhibition. Following its European launch in Germany this summer, all John Deere’s new and updated products for 2014 were on display this week in Hanover.
John Deere announced 70 new agricultural and turf products in August. This week visitors to its stand were able to see 27 tractor models from 80 to 120hp, the latest combines, round balers, mower-conditioners, sprayers and Gator utility vehicles, and the new silver award-winning Hitch Assist and Smart Irrigation Systems.
Since 2001 John Deere comes away from the event with a total five gold and 23 silver medal awards. The company say this year’s stand was designed around nine separate product hubs, displaying key John Deere solutions for a range of different customers, farm sizes and specialisations, with the focus on performance, uptime and low cost of operation.
The 6500m2 John Deere stand also featured a wide-screen cinema with seating for 60 people, a John Deere shop with the latest merchandise for customers and fans of the brand, a customer centre and a dedicated dealer area.
In the middle of the exhibit John Deere placed its customer centre, which featured John Deere FarmSight, finance and product support solutions, including PowerGard maintenance and protection programmes, parts and other aftermarket services.
The company also used ‘innovation towers’ to relate information to customers. New product details, technical data and other company information was relied to visitors using numerous touch-screen tables and John Deere product representatives equipped with a total of 230 iPad computers.
One of the highlights from John Deere at Agritechnica this week was the launch of its new combine app GoHarvest. The app is designed to make setting and optimisation of John Deere combines easier. This app allows operator’s to optimise its combine easily and always have the recommended John Deere settings to hand.
The app is also designed to allow users to improve performance by focusing on specific machine areas and evaluating losses. The operator simply chooses the combine model – W, T or S-Series – and crop type. GoHarvest then suggests initial settings for the selected crop both inside the cab and around the machine using a series of straightforward menus, tips and yes/no options, illustrated by clear photographs and diagrams.
The app also features a notes section, a help page and a link to John Deere’s online dealer locator. It is now available as a free download for smartphones and tablets using both the Android and iOS operating systems.