John Deere Model Year 2027 Planter Updates Explained

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Tony Kramer: Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology Podcast. In this episode, I talk with Stephen Schwartz about the John Deere model year 2027 updates for planters. Really excited to welcome back Stephen Schwartz. Stephen, you were just on the podcast back in March talking about FurrowVision and some of the excitement around that. Before we dive into this episode, why don't you just remind our listeners a little bit about who you are and what you do?

Stephen Schwartz: Thanks for having me on, Tony. So my name is Stephen Schwartz. I'm an agronomist and the product marketing manager for planters here at John Deere. So I get the opportunity to work with some of the great John Deere planting technologies and then really take my agronomist background and use that to focus on the agronomic and economic benefits. that these technologies can provide for farmers all over North America.

Tony: I'm going to go colorblind here. I don't care which color, which brand of planter you have, but there are so many agronomic effects when it comes to planting that seed. And the overall suite of technology that John Deere has to offer on their planters just continues to grow. And we're going to add to that in model year 27. So I'm really excited to talk about some of those features. Before we go there, last month we released an episode talking about FurrowVision. Give us a recap of FurrowVision and downforce automation.

Stephen: FurrowVision is a product that we've had in the market for several years now as a precision upgrade kit, and it'll still be available as a precision upgrade, but now in model year 27, you can put FurrowVision on planters coming from the factory here at John Deere. And so with FurrowVision, you get 3 camera systems that mount right behind the opening blades in your furrow to get a view into how your seed is actually being planted, the conditions of your furrow and the trench that we create, and get a look at how residue might be impacting seed placement and how downforce might be impacting our furrow. And so FurrowVision itself gives us a unique view into the furrow that as an agronomist, I've never had before when I'm trying to diagnose planter issues or emergence issues in a field. And so now in model year 27, you can get FurrowVision from the factory. But the thing that I'm really excited about with this technology is the ability to have downforce automation powered by FurrowVision available for model year 27 spring planting. And so downforce automation is using that information from FurrowVision and from across the planter to identify what the optimum downforce settings are for your planter as you plant this field, as you think about parts of this field, our soil types are different from one end to the other. And our soil types are different from field 1 to field 10. And so downforce automation helps you get the right setting and gives you confidence that your downforce settings are right on every acre. And so pairing downforce automation powered by FurrowVision together as an option from the factory is going to be really powerful for our customers in spring of 27 as we have, again, new agronomic capabilities to manage downforce in ways that we've never been able to before.

Tony: We've never had the ability to visualize our furrow like we can now with FurrowVision. And I think that's a huge part of it because prior to FurrowVision, you have to stop, get out, dig, you know, lift up a closing wheel, whatever it may be. Now with FurrowVision, we have the ability to monitor in the cab and then you add downforce automation, we're getting into the area where we've never had the ability to optimize our planter to this potential before this.

Stephen: It's really exciting. And I think downforce especially is one of those things that it's difficult to set it properly in every field. It's also time consuming to do so, right? And so having the ability with downforce automation to now have real-time input into the condition of your furrow as you plant, I think it's going to be game-changing for our ability to set downforce properly, give us increased yield, better emergence. And again, it comes back to, as an operator, confidence that you're doing the best job you can.

Tony: If you want to learn a little bit more about FurrowVision and downforce automation, I encourage you to go back to the previous episode. Moving on from that, I want to dive into some more features, some more technology that is going to be released for model year 27. So here we are a handful of weeks beyond Commodity Classic down in San Antonio. And you guys at John Deere released some very cool new features in terms of the planter itself. The first one I want to start off with is the new capabilities with the furrow systems. But before we talk about the new, let's talk about our journey of the ExactRate™, ExactShot™, all of that, and where we got to where we are today. So why don't you give us a little recap, Stephen, of how we got to this point?

Stephen: Yeah, so we think about applying fertilizer with our planter. It's a key part of the planting job step for a lot of farmers across the country. And when we go back, right, I'll go even back all the way to the inception of ExactEmerge™, right? So as at John Deere, we really focused on seed delivery and making sure we had complete control of the seed. And it gave us a lot of improvements in uniform emergence and spacing. And right, we know that story. And in 2018, we kind of looked up and said, wow, we have this great row unit technology with ExactEmerge, but we're still using a ground drive fertilizer pump. Right? And those two things don't go together. ExactEmerge with a ground drive fertilizer pump. There's more we could do. We could do it better. And we didn't honestly feel that we had a fertilizer system that was compatible or worthy of the capabilities of ExactEmerge in terms of the quality of job and the productivity that we could achieve with ExactEmerge. We spent several years, you know, the next three years, working on ExactRate. We brought that out in 2021, and it got us to a system that we're proud of and proud to pair with ExactEmerge. With that in 2021, we brought out turn compensation, individual row by row section control. We were using a hydraulic drive pump instead of ground drive. And so that gave us the ability to manage speed variability, right? We didn't have to mess with orifices and lag of the pump trying to catch up as we're speeding up or slowing down. And then all of that was integrated into the Gen 4 display with, row by row flow detection and documentation layers and Operations Center. And we were able to package all that together into a turnkey fertilizer system where customers didn't have to go and add an aftermarket system to try to get the performance that they would want paired with a, you know, premium row unit like ExactEmerge. And so Really, ExactRate set the foundation for all of this planter fertilizer stuff that we've been doing over the last decade.

Tony: Oftentimes, whether you're doing an in-furrow application or a two-by-two or a lay-by application, the pieces go together, the planter and the fertilizer system. And I think one of the things that was very key with the launch of ExactRate was the comment you made about ‘it's all integrated.’ We're no longer dealing with a third-party pump or a third-party flow meter or a rate controller or any of that. It was all integrated into the SeedStar™  system right into the display. It looked like your planter. We weren't running off of ISOBUS VT. Everything was all together with that. So I think that was a huge win on on the ExactRate side of things was to pull it all together in that. And then you guys, you took the technology that was already out there, that pulse width modulation technology on the ExactApply sprayers. We used common parts to put that on the planter. And now we've got a pulse width modulation fertilizer system. And you said it, we got curve compensation, individual row control, so many great features in 2021 when ExactRate came out. And then tell us about what came next.

Stephen: So next we thought, hey, we know that there's expensive in-furrow products that customers are trying to apply. And really those fertilizer products are all about hitting the seed or hitting off the seed, and we can talk about that in a second. And with our capabilities with ExactRate and Furrow, we're able to dose only on the seed if we do some manipulation to that pulse width modulation like you were just talking about. And so in 2025, we brought ExactShot. And you know, it's not a new idea. There have been other competitors who have been trying to dose products on the seed before us. But again, it comes back to two things that makes ExactShot head and shoulders above the competition there. Those 2 things are integration, where it's all connected together. ExactShot is in the display, and it's a simple adjustment to flip from a continuous application to dosing on the seed. But also that integration gives us confidence in the quality of the job, right? Because we're with ExactEmerge and with our seed metering systems where we can know where the seed is at all times. We know the geometry of our row unit and how things change. We can time the application of our fertilizer to our seed drop very, very, very precisely. And there have been some cool demonstrations on this that we've done where we'll go out at night and plant some seed with ExactShot, lift up the closing wheel tails and use like an illuminating liquid. And at nighttime, you can see where the ExactShot dose in, you know, illuminated neon green at night is hit squarely on the seed, right? And that really is the proof point that we use with ourselves and with customers to show we're doing a really good quality job that really sets us apart with our ExactShot system where we know we're hitting the seed every time. It's simple. You don't have to do a bunch of calibrations. And it's giving our farmers who are using it up to two-thirds product savings. I would say looking out across all the acres, it's probably 50+% product savings based on the rates that customers are running. And especially with these economic conditions, that's dollars, that goes back into our farmers' pockets.

Tony: Yeah, there's so many components to it. And again, you brought up the fact of when it's an integrated system, we know how these meters work, we know the timing, we know how the sensors work. So we can be so much more confident in the performance of those systems. And I like to, I got to bring this up. I've brought it up in the past before, but when you talked about that, when you talked about, hey, we know the meters, we know the seed sensors, we know where that seed is going. I like to use a quote from John Deere's great Kurt Crum, he made the comment about having a John Deere peer solution. And that's really what it comes down to with the ExactRate and the ExactShot is, again, there's others on the market, there's others out there, but this fully integrated John Deere peer solution gives us the confidence in the performance of that system. So both great products, ExactRate, ExactShot. They both kind of have their places depending on what you're looking for, what you're trying to do. One of the things that I'm so excited for, and I can't wait anymore, what are you guys bringing to us in 2027 that's going to make this fertilizer lineup even better?

Stephen: Now, right? We have customers who want 2x2 and in furrow. And for a long time, the only solution we could give them is, well, pick one from John Deere, one ExactRate system, one ExactShot system system, and then you'll have to put an aftermarket kit on to get your dual product application. And so we decided we're going to integrate it, right? That's the theme right now is how do we integrate all this into the John Deere system. So now we will have the option to get 2 liquid tanks on the planter with an ExactRate 2 by 2 system and an ExactShot system applying product in furrow on John Deere planters. Specifically, the dual product is going to come to 17, 75, 16, and 24 row planters. and the DB60 planter model for model year 27, and we're looking to expand that to other models. Those were the three that we started with. So those are the three models where you can get dual product liquid systems on planters starting in model year 27.

Tony: That is exciting because like you said, we've always had the customers ask, you know, I want to be able to do this. I want to put down two products. I got my in-furrow, but I want to put, you know, my 28% and a 2 by 2 or whatever products, whatever mixes we're putting down. Now we have that capability. We no longer have to go third party. We no longer have to worry about rate controllers or that non-integrated, that non-just smooth flowing feel with everything. We can get both of them. And you also mentioned that it's dual tanks, dual pump, dual product, all of that fully integrated on the planter from the factory.

Stephen: And one of the new things with the dual product system is we're moving the pumps from the rear of the planter to underneath underneath each tank. And you'll see that on all of our liquid systems going forward. It's going to be the pumps are now underneath the tank, kind of keeping it all in one place. That's actually going to help us when we're trying to prime the system. We can have gravity help us prime instead of having to push the liquid to the back of the planter to prime it and get it started. So that's really nice. With all of our liquid systems now, this isn't just exclusive for dual product, we will have liquid level sensing and agitation, tank agitation, standard on all of our fertilizer tanks coming out of the factory, if you have an ExactRate or an ExactShot or both, if you have those options on your planter. So I think, again, this takes that to the next level. We've gotten this request for agitation all the time as folks want to apply different products or just make sure things stay in solution longer as we plant longer. There's a lot of other products that can take advantage of it. And we said, hey, we're going to make sure that every customer who's using a John Deere fertilizer system, dual product or not, can have the opportunity to do agitation. That is, again, unlocking more capabilities and features for customers.

Tony: A lot of good things to come. We've also got, I believe there's a new feature on if you've got an 8RX with those ExactRate tanks. I believe there's a feature you guys added to that as well.

Stephen: Yes. So with those, ExactRate tanks, we have fluid transfer automation. So now when you plumb your ExactRate tanks into your dual product or standard liquid system on your planter, we now have the ability to automate the transfer of that liquid. And sometimes I talk to farmers and they go, I know how to transfer fluid from the tractor back to the planter. Agreed. But there's a lot of things going on when you're planting. And hey, you know, I have overfilled the liquid tanks on a planter before because I forgot to turn the pump off when I'm transferring fluid backwards. So I know that if I've done it, other farmers have too. And we can solve that with fluid transfer automation.

Tony: That is awesome here. And yeah, I agree. It's not a hard task to transfer fluid or to move from one tank to the other, but it's just remembering to do it day in, day out, whenever that transfer needs to happen. This just takes one more thing off their plate.

Stephen: There's one more thing on the liquid systems that I. forgot to mention. So we've had this auxiliary tank on the planters for a while, and now we've added another one. So we also have a rinse tank. So when you get a dual product machine, you will have your two large liquid tanks, and then you'll have a rinse tank, which we normally have, and another auxiliary tank. So those rinse and auxiliary, those are low volume, and you have the option to plumb those however you would like. whether that wants to be a rinse out tank, whether you want a hand washing station, or if you want to have the ability to plumb that into some type of direct inject system. So again, we're offering this other tank, this auxiliary tank, as another way that our farmers can be innovative and come up with the solutions that are going to help them make their liquid applications best. And we know that we're not going to solve every single liquid application type today, but we are committed to continue to improve liquid applications with our planters. And our goal is to be a one-stop shop for their fertilizer systems, no matter how unique your fertilizer application needs are. And so again, that's just another thing with those rinse and auxiliary tanks, as we're trying to make it easier for farmers to do their liquid applications however they need to.

Tony: The fertilizer, all everything we just talked about, that was just one of the releases. I guess we also talked about ForrowVision and downforce automation, but there was another thing that at Commodity Classic in San Antonio that was on that planter that I have never seen on a John Deere planter until that day. Tell us more about ExactDepth™.

Stephen: ExactDepth is probably the feature I got the most questions about Commodity [Classic]. Again, like you said, Tony, no one has ever seen it before on a John Deere planter. And so what it is, it's electronic depth control from the cab across all of your rows. And so we're using the same motor that we currently use today to run your brush belt and your bowl. So it's a reliable motor that we've trusted and we have confidence in its durability. And that motor is now going to run your T-handle for depth settings. Here's why that matters. We all know that planting at 2 inches or your desired depth is really, really important for uniform emergence and getting into moisture. But we also know that from start of a planting season to the end, there's things that wear on your planter differentially. that we also know that a new planter and then a five-year-old planter are going to be worn differently unless you do a complete parts overhaul on them. And so we want to make sure that every single row, regardless of what's happening during the season or over the lifetime of that planter, is planting at the right depth for our customers. ExactDepth gives us that easy control in the cab to be able to make sure everything is planting at the depth you want all the time. When we pair that with a system like FurroVision, where we have the ability to monitor furrow depth from the cab with FurrowVision, then you would be able to manually go in and adjust your depth control from the cab with ExactDepth while looking at your FurrowVision cameras. And so I think paired together, that as well is a pretty unique and powerful combination to be able to monitor your depth on the go with FurrowVision and then change your depth with ExactDepth from the cab.

Tony: Often guys will probably be like, well, hey, I can get out of the tractor and adjust that depth or whatever it may be. But you talk about pairing it with that visualization of FurrowVision or the FurrowVision lasers measuring that depth. I now have the ability right from in the cab to make adjustments to that depth. Now, to be clear, this is not an automated system, correct?

Stephen: Correct. So this is not automating your depth. This is not on the go adjusting your depth for you live during the field. What it's doing is ensuring that your desired setting is the setting you're planting at no matter what. And that's where with FurrowVision, you have that ability to visualize and then make adjustments. But it's still that input required from the operator to change your depth from the cab electronically with ExactDepth. I think that goes back to some of the other capabilities around the system that are really valuable. And one of them is going to be prescriptions. Planting at 2 inches for corn is really, really important. And we know that's crucial for success. But there are places where we have soil type variability and we know it, or we have moisture variability and we know it. And especially in the South, there are a lot of customers who chase moisture all the time. They're planting shallower and they're chasing moisture. And ExactDepth gives you the ability to map those in a prescription, and you can run your depth control as a prescription, just like you run a seed prescription or fertilizer. There's going to be customers who find a lot of value in that because they do have highly variable moisture conditions. They do have highly variable soil types that need different management within field or across fields. And ExactDepth can do that. We can run depth prescriptions through ExactDepth.

Tony: So there's another feature, another piece of technology that we have never had the ability to do until now, because you talk about the prescriptions. So being able to shallow up in the low ground or go a little bit deeper on the high ground, or if you're talking soil variabilities, making those changes. I know darn well today with a T-handle adjustment, nobody is going to get out make those changes, plant through the low ground, get out, make those changes. But now with ExactDepth, we can. So we can increase the performance of our planter with a product like ExactDepth.

Stephen: And I think it also comes back to setting your planter for success at the beginning of the season. Hopefully everybody is going out and blocking all over your rows to make sure your T-handles are set properly, consistently across the planter. And the calibration process with ExactDepth makes that really easy. Now you just have to be on a concrete pad and be able to set the planner down, run the calibration process where it will run the screw all the way out, run the screw all the way back in, and then ensure that every row is set exactly where you want it. And it takes a couple minutes, maybe 5 minutes to run that calibration as opposed to having to get out a jack and some blocks. and a marker to mark all of your rows to make sure you're doing a good job. And so that calibration process, I think, gives us confidence as well, again, that we're doing the right job, the best job that we can on every acre. And ExactDepth is going to help us with that.

Tony: And now I can only assume that because this system is smarter, we have that screw adjust, the more, I guess, micro adjustments, not just the T-handle and the slots we're working with. I can fine-tune my depth and not just have to work with the slots that the T-handle has, it's going to be able to fine-tune itself to two inches deep or an inch and three-quarter.

Stephen: Yes, and I think that I'm going to tie this back to downforce, which is one of my, you know, my most favorite topics. There's times when we're trying to create the perfect furrow at speed, and we're putting down a lot of force trying to create the furrow and maybe we're still not getting to depth. One of the best solutions I've found is go a little bit deeper. Go 1/4 inch deeper. You don't have to change your downforce at all or even maybe you can lighten it up and you get that perfect depth, perfect furrow created beautifully. And sometimes it's this interaction of depth and downforce that gets you to the perfect furrow. And you know, we're saying, hey, I want to cut, you know, set my blades to cut at 2 inches and that's what I want. Well sometimes if you cut it 2 1/4 with the right downforce and the right soil conditions, you can create the best furrow. And so again, having this adjustability is going to make that a lot easier for customers to get the best outcomes.

Tony: The downforce, the depth, the speed, the soil conditions or tillage practices that you're doing, it all plays a factor in making sure we're getting good, consistent depth for uniform emergence, uniform seed spacing. Ties back to what we were talking about with the agronomics of planting. There's a lot to it, and a lot of these technologies are going to make all of that easier as we continue to go forward model year 27. There was one last piece at Commodity Classic that kind of ties to the planter, but more ties to the new 8 Series. So you guys launched the high horsepower 8Rs, 8RXs, but there was a cool feature that some people may or may not have realized if you looked at the back of that tractor, there's a new plug there. Tell us a little bit about what that plug is for and how it ties to our planters.

Stephen: Yeah, so that's our integrated 56 volt off-board power. And with our planters now on model year 27, you'll have the ability to get a tether harness where you won't need to run PTO power Gen or hydraulic power Gen. If you're running these new high horsepower ADAR tractors, you can just use the integrated 56 volt off-board that comes from that EVT transmission to run all of the electronic capabilities, all the electronic things that we run on the planter today. And so it's a really simple connection. It's something that is going to be more affordable for customers than some of those other power Gen options. And it's just making it a seamless integration between our tractors and our planters. Again, that makes that ultimate planting solution between our tractors and planters even easier to operate. So with that integrated 56-volt harness, it's just a big old cord with a two-pin connector. Really easy to do. Doesn't take any time to hook it up and boom, you have all your power needs for your planter. It's a great simple operation feature for our farmers. It'll come from the factory as well on model year 27 planters. You can get this integrated 56-volt tether harness. But if you have a new tractor, a new model year 27 tractor with an older planter, we will have aftermarket kits where you can get this tether harness to attach, say, a model year 25 planter to a model year 27 tractor, right? So you can still get this feature without buying a brand new planter, as long as you have the new tractor with the EBT transmission where we can offboard that power. So I just wanted to call that out too, because it's model year 27, it's new planter features, but this is also something that folks with recent planters can still take advantage of this capability if they have a new high horsepower 8R.

Tony: That's a really good point. And there's two things you mentioned there. One, it is specifically tied to the EVT transmission. So we have to have that electronic variable transmission in order to do this. But then also, yeah, the ability to kind of retrofit an older planter. So oftentimes guys will update their tractor more frequently than their planter. But now if they get into that new 8 Series with the EVT transmission, they can update their planter with that tether harness and get that off-boarding capability. So yeah, very, very good points to bring up there. The northern US, we're just getting fired up here mid-April. What are some things we need to think about in terms of planting for this 2026 growing season?

Stephen: Well, the first one is just the importance of planter settings. I know we spent all winter focusing on this and making sure planters are set up properly. But making sure all of the little things on your planter are optimized is how you get that uniform emergence. And the one thing I would like people to be focusing on is downforce. How are you setting downforce? How often are you adjusting it to different field conditions and different soil types? And then how does that change by speeds? right? And I think we need to take this into consideration more and more as we plant. Again, the key thing to look for here is 98 or 99% ground contact with our ExactEmerge planners so that you, not 100, 100 means you're applying too much downforce. If you're running 98 or 99% ground contact with your downforce setting, you're doing a good job. So look for that in the monitor. The second thing I'll call out is germination depth. We talk about cut depth and planting depth all the time. This is something I picked up from David Hula and Randy Doughty last spring. Two-inch germination depth is key, and that ties back to your closing system. And making sure that you're not going to have settling, whether you're in a strip till condition or just conventional till system, your soil can settle. And if you're trying to plant it too and your soil settles, you can actually get to inch and three quarters. And to get the best corn yields, having a two-inch germination depth is really what sets us up for success, not just a two-inch planting depth. The third one, this is kind of tied to planter features. Every planter this spring running SeedStar 5 has the ability to run Active Vacuum Automation. So this is a feature that was released last year on our model year 26 planters, only for those planters, and we've pushed it out to all Seedstar 5 planters for free. And so what active vac automation does is it looks at your planter singulation, population metrics, and it changes your vacuum settings to optimize those key job metrics on your planter, right? I don't necessarily care how many inches of water are on my vacuum. I care about my singulation and my population being as good as they can be. And so when you're changing hybrids from medium flats to medium round seed, your vacuum settings should change. And so active vacuum automation will change for you all the time to optimize those key planting metrics, right? Singulation, spacing, population. Those are the outcomes that we want. So if you're planting this spring with SeedStar 5, make sure you're using active vac automation. Again, this is a feature free to anyone who's using SeedStar 5 this spring. I really hope people get a lot of value out of this pretty simple system.

Tony: Yeah, those are three great things to think about. We wish all of you the best out there. Hopefully you have a great planting season with little to no hiccups or issues. Hopefully we can have a great 2026 growing season. Steven, all the stuff we talked about here, lots and lots of great technology, great features coming out for model year 27. But if people want to learn more about all of this technology or all these features, where can they go? Who can they talk to?

Stephen: So first, go to deere.com to see all of the new updates. We have a new planter brochure that's been published, and that's going to outline all of these new features in a more detailed way. So go find that. Also, make sure to talk to your local John Deere dealer about any of these options or features or things that interest you. And be on the lookout for our early order program, which is going to open at the beginning of June. And if you have any questions, again, go to your local John Deere dealer and they'll get you all the answers for your questions.

Tony: I just want to thank you, Stephen, for taking the time again to sit down and chat with me about all of this new planter technology, planter features. It's great to chat with you. I know you and I could go on and on and on about planters and agronomy, but we'll leave this one off here. And I guess for all of you out there in the tractor right now, happy planting. And yeah, here's to a wonderful 2026 growing season.

Stephen: Thanks, Tony, and hopefully I'll get to see you in the field this spring.

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