Deere & Co and strengthened its precision farming position and completed the US$305 million acquisition of California-based Blue River Technology announced earlier this month. From its base at Sunnyvale, Blue River has developed computer vision, robotic and machine learning to help smart machines detect, identify and make management decisions about individual plants.

The company has successfully applied the technique to crop sprayers, and the new owner is confident similar technology can be used on a wider range of John Deere products in the future. In the meantime, it is business as usual for Blue River’s 60 staff.