James River Blog

Friday, April 8, 2022

Hagie and John Deere Partnership

blog1In 2016, John Deere announced it acquired a majority ownership stake in high clearance sprayer manufacturer, Hagie Sprayer. The merger of the two was a win-win situation with benefits for both companies.

"Hagie receives the benefit of access to Deere’s extensive dealer channel and support team, an important aspect in equipment sales that Hagie had reportedly lacked in the past as well," states Barry E. Nelson, John Deere's manager of media relations.

Founded in 1947, Hagie disrupted the market by inventing the world's first self-propelled sprayer. The company quickly became an industry leader by providing the market with new solutions for evolving farming needs and leading the way with many 'firsts.' Hagie had dreams of being international, which is exactly what John Deere was willing to offer them. John Deere gave them more technology, as well as partners all over the world.

Although Hagie has kept its branding, John Deere plans to change that in the future. "Well, if you think about it, agriculture is a cyclical business, and as we go through different cycles, Deere has long-term strategic plans. No matter if it's a good cycle, a bad cycle, or whatever, we want to do the right thing not only for our business but also to make sure we are taking care of our customers and helping our dealers," said Nelson.

At James River Equipment's test farm just outside our Tappahannock, VA location, it’s now sprayer season and we’re looking forward to working with Hagie sprayers on our training farm to learn more about the equipment and what it has to offer. Hagie has high clearance, high yields, and high expectations, which is why they work so great with John Deere to expand the current methods of agriculture. John Deere partnered with Hagie because of its sprayers, but with the addition of a John Deere engine and John Deere Operations precision Ag technology, we expect even bigger things in the future.

We plan to evaluate comfort, ease of use, and control of the Hagie sprayers compared to the John Deere sprayers we know thoroughly. We recently applied nitrogen to our 100 acre plot with the Hagie sprayer to get a couple hours in the cab, and so far we’ve been impressed with the machine.

James River Equipment started this test farm at the beginning of 2021. The training farm will allow our Large Ag sales team to operate more equipment and get more hands-on experience in the field. We also plan to add our parts and service teams to the training farm rotation so they too can get more experience working with the newest technology in agriculture.



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