Seed by Seed, John Deere Cuts Fertilizer Waste in Half

John Deere's ExactShot technology doses fertilizer seed-by-seed, cutting usage up to 66% with no yield loss

15 Apr 2026

John Deere has a simple pitch for corn farmers squeezed by elevated input costs: stop fertilizing dirt. ExactShot, the company's sensor-driven planting system, doses starter fertilizer directly onto each seed rather than streaming it continuously down the row. No seed, no fertilizer. The math is straightforward.

Testing across 21 farms in six Midwestern states found the approach cuts starter fertilizer use by up to 66% with no yield penalty. Scaled across the entire US corn crop, John Deere estimates the system could eliminate more than 93 million gallons of surplus fertilizer annually, reducing both farm costs and nutrient runoff into waterways downstream.

The timing is deliberate. Fertilizer prices remain well above pre-pandemic levels, and tariff headwinds are adding fresh strain to agricultural supply chains. ExactShot is part of a broader $20 billion domestic investment push that also includes See & Spray, Deere's AI-guided precision herbicide platform, which covered more than five million US acres in 2025.

The financial case stacks up. Industry research from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers found that precision agriculture has already lifted US crop production by 5% annually. An 8% improvement in fertilizer optimization alone could save producers up to $20,000 per 1,000 acres. Seed-level dosing sits near the top of that return curve.

Adoption isn't limited to buyers of new equipment, either. ExactShot is designed for retrofit compatibility with existing planters, which meaningfully widens its reach. Combined with FurrowVision furrow monitoring and ExactDepth electric depth control, it slots into an integrated precision planting system that's moving from early adoption into mainstream commercial use.

With spring planting now underway across the Midwest, the conversation on most farms has shifted from whether precision inputs make sense to how fast the payback arrives.