How Big Tech Ruined Farming

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Max Moser
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[Ninjaeule]

Companies like John Deere are the reason we have to pass Right to Repair ASAP. Not being able to repair your smartphone, laptop or TV is one thing. Not being able to repair the machine that your livelihood depends on another.

[LibreGlider]

DRM ruined farming. Not allowing a farmer to fix the equipment they "own".

[nikanj]

John Deere: We're a tech company.
Everyone: No you're not.
John Deere: Our tractors require several subscriptions to run.
Everyone: Oh you ARE a tech company.

[marcusmoonstein]

In South Africa many of the farmers simply refuse to buy this hi-tech equipment. Instead they'll own a basic tractor and sign short-term leases for the fancy equipment only at the times they really need it (usually at planting and harvesting time). These lease contracts usually include the operator who has been trained by, and works directly for, the manufacturer.

This system works well because if the fancy stuff breaks down then the manufacturer has to get it fixed while supplying the farmer with a spare. It costs the farmer slightly more, but avoids all the costs and hassles of owning this stuff.

[calebmeyer]

As a former Deere engineer, Deere's old stance of doing things right has changed to doing things for maximum profit, and John May is one of the biggest indicators of that. Layoffs are happening in both manufacturing and engineering to increase profit margins, production lines are being moved offshore, and technical leaders that made Deere the company it is today are being fired, in the interest of cutting costs. There is no longer anything special about Deere as a company, and in a decade there will be nothing special about their machinery.

As a side note, Deere is currently in a hiring freeze. All of those job listings will never be filled, at least in the short-term. In fact, Deere is actively trying to reduce headcount in their tech department, through enforcing return to office policies. They are planning on a 2% reduction in headcount.

[Anay]

It cost me $1, 500 to activate Auto steering one time on a tractors built in screen. If I wanted to use a removable screen to move tractor to tractor it cost me $1, 500 every single year to use that screen. They know how to squeeze every penny out of you. Other companies don't charge a fraction of this and don't hit you constantly with activation costs and fees

[foruneverban]

The family lost their warranty because we made repairs on our tractor. If we waited for the technician it would have taken three weeks. The alternator had to be programmed to the tractor so we still had to wait.

[ImperatorSupreme]

My Grandfather is a farmer and my family has many ties to farming communities. John Deere has alienated a lot of loyal customers with its practices on repair. Tractors aren’t McDonalds Ice Cream Machines. Those farmers need to either be able to repair it themselves, or take it to a local shop. They can’t afford to wait for a John Deere tech to come from three counties over two weeks later to grant his blessing, all while charging an arm and a leg for the privilege.

[programmer]

I've seen a huge uptick in the popularity of Kubota in North America over the last few years, particularly with small and medium sized farms, and it's obvious to see why.

[kylesebring]

Welp, if we can't use John Deere, I guess its time to bring back the Lamborghini tractors

Clarkson style

[investorzone-yt]

It's easy to understand why Kubota's appeal has skyrocketed in North America in recent years, especially among small and medium-sized farms.

[carlramirez]

From what I learnt here, Big Tech didn't ruin farming, letting John Deere build a monopoly did.

[prettypic]

We should change it from “beware of Greeks bearing gifts” to “beware of companies offering solutions”

[dannymac]

John Deere: Nothing runs over farmers like a Deere.

[Tivis]

17:55 bro legit be forgetting the countless farmers hacking their equipment. It's not that they don't know how to fix them. It's that they’ve been legally locked not to by the company.

[Zezeze.]

At my agricultural engineering faculty a company got to introduce us to their new software before the prof began his lecture. It was about tractor and driver management and seeing when and where the driver stops, when and where fertilizer or pesticide is sprayed etc, all on your phone.

This real life ad had been presented to us the year prior as well, with mostly quiet disgruntlement from us students. But this time one student got so pissed off that he stood up and actually yelled into the huge lecture hall about how we do not need companies to help us breath down a tractor drivers neck about the piss breaks he takes and that was all it took for every other student to let lose their frustration. The prof and the company reps looked seriously intimidated and concerned and in the end the company reps got (quite literally) yelled out of the lecture hall.
Didn't even manage to finish their talk, just took their stuff, a quick bye to the prof, and fled.

Afterwards we kept talking about it and how we didn't like precision farming and how pissed off we were about the repair bans, the dying out of small farms (particularly 2018, in Germany we had a drought and so many small farmers had to sell everything, still a tear jerker topic) etc.

Agriculture is very frustrating when you are in it. I could talk for hours about it, about how my indigenous home village thousands of km away is dying out, about the water shortages, the big ag companies outpricing everyone, produce rotting in the fields bc it is too expensive too harvest it and people do not come out to collect it. So many miseries, so many stories, and in the end city folk wont know a lick about it, but get to complain about everything. It's complicated to say the least, but there are so many good farmers out there doing their best.

[bradygwynne]

You seriously underestimated the cost of the see and spray system. As a farm that just ordered a 612r with the camera spraying system I can tell you there isn't much change out of $1.2m

[LucendsRanch]

As a farmer whose family has ran Deere for 100+ years I must say this was very well done. We love Deere for their quality, reliability and resale value. We hate Deere because they are out of touch with the backbone of their customer base. Our local Deere dealer is empty of customers while full of tractors and combines. Their business model serves the biggest of customers first, almost cutting the medium to small farmers out completely. The profit first approach has alienated almost everybody, big farmers included. Instead of the dealer approaching the customer relationship as a relationship, they stab us in the back with overpriced parts, overpriced service and conflict as soon as an issue arises. They are also famous for poorly treating employee’s, which are our neighbours and friends. In the profit first attitude, they fired the trained staff then rehired new staff, trained them but cut the pay by 1/3. Not a good situation.

[josecipriano]

18:15 "JD has found itself in the middle of a battle over the right to repair" wow go easy on the euphemisms Wendover. They've declared war on people being able to repair the equipment they've bought.

[deadbrother]

My grandfather was a John Deere mechanic back in the 70s and 80s. He took pride in his work. He would be disgusted by them now.