Agriculture Technology Podcast · RDO Equipment Co.

Ep. 220 - 2026 John Deere Combine Upgrades: What’s New This Year

·24 min·1 clip

Predictive ground speed uses two cameras and satellite imagery to control combine speed automatically.

Tony Kramer opens the show and welcomes Bergen Nelson back to talk about combine updates coming for model year 2026. Bergen explains that his job at John Deere is to help bring new harvesting products to market and help dealers and customers understand them. The discussion starts with what was introduced in model year 25 and what is being pushed further for model year 26. Predictive ground speed automation is the main thread. Bergen says the system is being expanded with weed detection and terrain sensing. The weed detection setup uses cameras mounted on the front of the combine. Those cameras can see out roughly 28 feet ahead. When the machine enters a weedy patch, the system can slow the combine down so it does not slug the rotor. That slowdown is meant to happen automatically, rather than waiting on the operator to catch the problem. Bergen also says the weed detection feature will create a weed layer or weed map or weed pressure map after harvest. That map flows into operation center. Customers can review the weed pressure for each field once the work is done. The terrain sensing side of the update is meant to recognize bumps and dips in the field. The machine can then speed up or slow down as needed. Bergen keeps the goal simple: better performance across more conditions, with less for the operator to manage. Tony slows the discussion down at points so Bergen can define terms and explain how the system behaves in the field. The result is a product walkthrough that sounds like a dealer conversation, not a press release. It spends time on how the technology works, what information comes out of it, and why a customer would care. The episode closes with the usual encouragement to subscribe and follow the company on social media, but the core of the show is the operating detail around the 2026 combine changes.

As heard by us

Practical combine automation updates, focused on how the machine responds in the field.

The episode follows model year 2026 combine updates, with Bergen Nelson framing predictive ground speed as a change in how the machine is operated rather than a simple product tour.

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Want the new Deere combine updates explained in plain farm language?

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