2012 Press Releases

Since entering the irrigation industry in 2006, and until relatively recently, John Deere Water’s product portfolio has focused primarily on drip and micro irrigation products. But it was obvious that it would not be long before the company started expanding its product range to other irrigation components.

For those who may not be aware, it may be good to provide a brief history of John Deere Water. What John Deere is known for has increasingly moved way beyond the humble, tough tractor and into water.

Given John Deere’s dedicated relationship to the land and agriculture, it was a strategic, yet natural fit. Water is the key to greater agricultural output. Only 18 per cent of the world’s agricultural land is irrigated, yet irrigated agriculture accounts for 40 per cent of global food production.

In rapid time John Deere Water has become one of the largest irrigation companies in the world. With the 2008 acquisitions of Plastro Irrigation Systems and T-Systems, International and the 2006 acquisition of Roberts Irrigation Products, John Deere Water now provides precision irrigation systems in more than 100 countries.

To that end, John Deere Water is investing heavily in research and development focused on efficiency, durability and precision deliverability. When this is allied to further possible company acquisitions, it is expected there will soon be a range of new product lines brought to market that will revolutionise the irrigation business.

In the past 12 months alone, John Deere Water has launched the D5000 drip line, S2000 micro sprinkler, S5000 plastic impact sprinkler and E1000 online dripper.

It was only a matter of time before the company that is best known for building metal tractors used its ‘know how’ to launch a range of high quality metal filters.

The initial launch features a wide range of filters, including hydrocyclone, media, automatic hydraulic, automatic electric and semi-automatic filters. Also new to Australia is the F9000 Gravity Filter, which, as the name suggests, uses the force of gravity alone to filter up to 130 microns.

Importantly, John Deere has not used a ‘one size fits all’ approach for this product range.

As anyone who has irrigation equipment will testify, Australia has some of the ‘harshest’ water in the world. Not necessarily caused by acidic pH levels, water hardness and turbidity is a common cause for corrosion problems and is particularly common in irrigation water from Murray-Darling catchments in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia along with most eastern catchments in Queensland.

Generally the standard method of corrosion prevention for filters is applying a polypropylene coating to the metal. While sufficient in most countries, experience shows that polypropylene coated filters in Australia can start to corrode in as little as two years.

Aware of this unique challenge for Australian farmers, an internal epoxy coating is applied in the manufacturing process to all John Deere filters produced for Australia.

While polypropylene coating is a form of powder coating, epoxy coating reacts to make a bond with the metal itself. This results in a hard robust surface that adheres to the steel, making it one of the most effective methods of preventing corrosion.

‘Minimising down-time is critical for growers,’ says John Deere Water Australia/New Zealand Managing Director, Peter Wanckel. ‘It is our goal to allow growers to keep their irrigation system running longer by tailoring a unique epoxy-coated product range for Australia conditions.’

For more information, including additional photographs, please contact Matthew Clift, Ph 07 3881 4026, email mclift@JohnDeereWater.com.

Deere & Company (NYSE: DE) is a world leader in providing advanced products and services, and is committed to the success of customers whose work is linked to the land — those who cultivate, harvest, transform, enrich and build on the land to meet the world’s dramatically increasing need for food, fuel, shelter and infrastructure. Since 1837, John Deere has delivered innovative products of superior quality built on a tradition of integrity. For more information, visit John Deere at its worldwide website at www.JohnDeere.com.