The environment continues to be ripe for machinery acquisitions, as shown by the latest news from Deere and Co, that announced a joint venture with Hagie Manufacturing. Sources: AgWeb, Farm Weekly
Under the arrangement, Deere will acquire a majority ownership of Hagie, a leading manufacturer of high-clearance sprayers.
The joint venture will allow John Deere to provide a broader range of spraying equipment and precision offerings to its customers and give Hagie the ability to reach more customers and be supported with Deere’s dealer network, according to company representatives in a prepared statement.
The current plan is to continue manufacturing sprayers in Clarion, Iowa, at Hagie headquarters and for Hagie sales and service to be integrated into Deere’s global distribution channel over the next 15 months, according to Deere.
Farmers are more mindful of the changes in the marketplace after John Deere announced plans in 2015 to acquire Climate Corporation’s Precision Planting and data sharing across platforms and Monosem, the European market leader in precision planters.
Deere says equipment made by what they are referring to as a joint venture, will continue to carry the Hagie brand and be built at Hagie’s Iowa facility.
Sales and service for Hagie equipment will be integrated into Deere’s global distribution channels over the next 15 months.
Hagie has been sold in Australia for a number of years by Sprayershop.
Sprayershop’s Andrew Uphill, said the news had come as a shock as they had made good in-roads with the brand over the past few years.
“We’ve got a few of the them out there, there’s a few more coming on order and some quoted as well,” he said.
“They are good all round but what they can do in-crop with laying fertiliser down is their big bonus.”
The machines accepted a toolbar for laying down liquids and an air seeder box and toolbar discs for dry fertilisers.
Hagie self propelled sprayers range from 3500 to 6000 litres with high clearance a specialty – the STS16 model offering a 193 centimetre frame clearance for in-crop applications. They also offer a quad tracked version of the STS model.
“Everyone loved them,” Mr Uphill said. “They are finished off beautifully; the cab’s are purpose designed, not taken off a tractor; they are beautiful to drive and have all the features you could ask for,” he said.
“We don’t know what’s happening. We have an agreement with them so it is interesting times.”
