John Deere acquires GUSS Automation
John Deere has announced the full acquisition of GUSS Automation, LLC, a globally recognised leader in supervised high-value crop autonomy, headquartered in Kingsburg, California.
John Deere has allied with Kramer-Werke, a German materials handling gear maker, to distribute the latter’s products via the JD dealer network.
The move, the first for the global giant in the sector since it bought the rights to Matbro machines in the late 1990s, will see the Kramer gear selling via JD dealerships in Europe, then CIS, North Africa and the Middle East.
As the market for such machines matures in Oceania this supply chain is likely to be the preferred route.
Interestingly, the availability of the Kramer machines comes just as JD nears the end of an agreement with harvest specialist Claas, to which it supplied Scorpion telehandlers; Claas will in future source machines from Liebherr.
The Kramer range is wide: nine compact wheel loaders, four telescopic wheel loaders and nine telehandlers, all made at Pullendorf, Germany. Kramer is part of the big Wacker-Neuson Group.
JD and Kramer are calling the deal – still subject to sanction by anti-trust authorities -- a win-win for both.
JD will fill a gap in its product offering with machines from a respected supplier and Kramer will get a bigger agricultural footprint.
NZPork has appointed Auckland-based Paul Bucknell as its new chair.
The Government claims to have delivered on its election promise to protect productive farmland from emissions trading scheme (ETS) but red meat farmers aren’t happy.
Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.
The Ministry for the Environment is joining as a national award sponsor in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards (BFEA from next year).
Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.
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