John Deere, Sonoma County Winegrowers Partner on Farm of the Future Project

John Deere is partnering with Sonoma County Winegrowers as part of its Farm of the Future project to support the adoption of automation and digital solutions across the agricultural industry.

The alliance was announced at the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ annual meeting in January.

Through Farm of the Future, which Sonoma describes as a “living lab,” winegrowers and tech companies can pilot concepts for advancing innovations and farming practices to support sustainability in the agricultural industry.

John Deere joins the likes of Ford Pro and Wilbur Ellis, as well as emerging companies like Agrology and Pellen, working to develop these solutions to tackle labor and operational challenges currently facing farmers.

“This new collaboration will be one of the most significant developments for wine grapes and other high value crops,” said Karissa Kruse, Sonoma County Winegrowers’ CEO. “Our living lab provides amazing real-world applications focused on achieving game-changing solutions. We want to be the model for the future of agriculture everywhere. 

“With John Deere, we will be learning together how our farmers can do more with less resources while moving towards more mechanization to increase the longevity of their vineyards.”

“Our focus is working with a real purpose on real technology to bring about a real impact,” said Sean Sundberg, John Deere’s business integration manager. “We look forward to addressing some of the biggest challenges facing winegrowers and farmers of other high value crops by developing solutions that address our customers’ needs.”

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Farm of the Future was launched in 2022 as part of a collaboration with Ford Pro, in recognition of the fact that “climate impacts … are becoming more frequent and extreme for farmers”. 

Wilbur Ellis joined the project in 2023 to boost soil health and optimize water usage in the industry. 

Specifically, the company is working with seven pilot farmers to increase organic soil matter, map soil variability, conduct soil chemistry, develop prescriptive soil health treatments, monitor and optimize soil moisture, monitor vine health and put new technology into real world trial work.