TREMONT, Ill. – Precision Planting, which specializes in components and attachments designed to enhance yields, was founded in 1993. More than 30 years later, it has more than 450 employees and offices around the world.

The company’s products are used on planters, seeders, strip-till bars, side dress bars, sprayers and combines, said Ken Sauder, Precision Planting’s region manager. The company focuses on identifying agronomic improvements and solutions to enhance perfection of placing seed, improving sprayer performance, or improving combine head performance, he said.

“Many of our products are designed to retrofit older equipment to perform better than new equipment purchased from the factory,” Sauder explained. “However, our products also come from the factory on brand new equipment. We have relationships with several (original equipment manufacturers) who now install it directly at the factory on new equipment.

“These attachments do improve the performance of the equipment, whether it be increased yield, faster planting speed, precise location of seed, helping achieve the 4R (right source, rate, time and place) principle, right-sized spray droplets, creating a better trench or following ground contour better.”

He said Precision Planting has several categories of products: solutions for singulation, spacing and population; emergence; harvest; nutrient management; sprayer; data management; and soil testing. In many of the categories, the company has 10-12 products each.

For example, Precision Planting offers display monitors under the emergence solution category. “Monitors are the backbone of our product line,” Sauder pointed out. “The monitor controls over half of all of our products and are integral for our product line.

“In the sprayer solutions category, we have Symphony Vision that helps with weed maintenance through correct application of chemicals. We have over 50 products that fall under all of these categories that help the farmer to enhance his growing capabilities.”

The company designs its products, which are manufactured to meet the specs from Precision Planting’s engineering team, he said. Some manufacturing is outsourced, but the company owns the patents, blueprints, molds and tooling used in production. Many of the components are then assembled and packaged at Precision Planting’s warehouse in Morton, Ill., Sauder added.

“From that location, we ship products all over the world going directly to our dealers’ locations. All of the items we offer are unique as growers cannot purchase them from anyone but a Precision Planting dealer.”

The monitors are the company’s most popular item, he said. Other popular items include frame-mounted row cleaners, row-by-row fertilizer components on planters, and cameras for spot spraying weeds.

“Every year, our innovative engineering team brings two-three more products to market as they are driven to produce better yields on their own farm operations,” Sauder noted. “Many of our engineers have a background in a family farm operation.

Precision Planting was founded in 1993 by Gregg and Cindy Sauder. As a farmer and livestock producer, Gregg was committed to improving yields, Ken Sauder said. Gregg and Cindy were introduced to Eugene Keeton, who had invented the seed firmer. Keeton asked the Sauders to perform field trials “in a revolutionary way to enhance corn yields by firming seed to the bottom of a trench” using his invention, Ken Sauder said. “Through the field trials it showed Gregg how his corn yields were positively impacted by eliminating air in the trench. Gregg then entered a partnership with Eugene Keeton and Precision Planting was born.”

Gregg Sauder sold the company in 2013. Five years later, AGCO purchased Precision Planting.

“With the introduction of additional agricultural products, Precision Planting has evolved under the AGCO PTx division,” Ken Sauder said. “PTx Precision and PTx Trimble will be merged into one full line product division of PTx but will keep both names individually.”

Precision Planting began shipping equipment overseas in 2006 as those growers were demanding some of the perfection the company provided to U.S. growers, he said. The company has offices in Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Ukraine. Precision Planting has nearly 75 employees overseas with product support specialists in 12 countries.

Over the next 10 years or so, technology will continue to develop more rapidly, and labor savings will be a piece of this rapid change, Sauder said.

“You have heard a lot about autonomy products and that will be a player, but pricing will also dictate how fast that comes into play,” he noted. “There are still many small improvements as computer-controlled products enhance the decisions we make traveling through fields. Therefore, what took us five-eight years to bring to the market will soon accelerate and you will see that same amount of change in three-four years.

“In the agriculture marketplace, we have been focused on doing more with less and more efficiently. Our grandfathers embraced this concept, our fathers did, we are, and our children along with grandchildren will as well. The farm atmosphere is family focused and will continue due to the dedication of growers and their desire and commitment to bring success into each family operation. They are the heartbeat of agriculture.”