Photo courtesy of The Global Unmanned Spray System
From staff reports
The Global Unmanned Spray System (GUSS) is being introduced to the market as part of a joint venture with GUSS Automation, LLC and as part of the Deer & Company portfolio. GUSS will keep all technology and manufacturing of the units, however, Deere will have rights and insights into the technology development. Deere benefits by being able to use the learned technology and transferring it to the autonomous machinery that they are developing for row crop operations.
“There are no plans to apply GUSS technology to Deere products,” Deere says in a written statement to DTN/Progressive Farmer. “GUSS technology will continue to be owned by and further developed by GUSS to serve its grower customers. That said, there are certainly similarities between the two companies. Like Deere, GUSS is solving customer problems through innovation and technology, and we will look for opportunities to collaborate and best serve customers through our joint efforts.”
Deere says it was drawn to GUSS because the company is “doing something unique and creative to help growers directly address the significant challenges of increasing labor costs and finding skilled labor to operate spray equipment.”
Headquartered in Kingsburg, California, in California specialty crop operations, orchards, and vineyards purchase GUSS machines. There are two options: a larger GUSS machine is 24 feet long and 6 feet, 4 inches tall. It comes in an 8 foot, 3-inch width or a 7 foot, 6-inch width. A smaller version is about 25% smaller. The smaller version is intended for high-density plantings in vineyards, orchards, and berry fields. They released the first machines in 2019.