John Deere recently announced the availability of Pro Service Upgrade to Operations Center and it replaces the existing Customer Service Advisor. The new capability requires an annual license of $ 195 per machine and places the ability of software reprogramming of Deere controllers directly in the hands of the customer.
This is an important new capability and potentially an inflection point in the right to repair debate which has been happening for many years within the agriculture equipment space.
Before we dig into the details, let us look at the changing landscape and explore how right to repair is not only a business and technology issue, but also a cultural issue.
A changing landscape
The farmer had a dreamy look on his face as he looked at his bank of four sweet potato harvesters, stacked in front of a wall of empty sweet potato bins.
This sweet potato farmer in Merced county, California had spent the last 20 minutes explaining to me how the harvester worked today. Along the way, he had regaled me with stories of how he made one or the other modifications to change its behavior to suit his needs, fixed an issue himself or in collaboration with his neighbor or a local machine shop. According to him, the harvester looked quite a bit different now, compared to how it was when he first got it almost 35-40 years ago!
This story has been fairly common on farms in the United States. It has become less common over the last few years, as farm equipment has become more and more sophisticated. Today’s farm equipment has a ton of sensors, cameras, and electronics.
For example, a Carbon Robotics G2-1200 with 16 modules has 48 high resolution cameras, 320 high intensity LED bedtop lights, 100+ AI deep learning crop models, and probably 32 NVIDIA GPUs (this is a guess on my part - a single A100 GPU costs about $ 15K, whereas a H100 GPU costs about $ 25K)
It is becoming harder and harder for farmers to repair their own equipment, as they might not have access to the right data, information, tools or expertise.
OEM terms of use and warranties make it difficult for a farmer to fix certain issues without going to the dealership, which can be time consuming and expensive. OEMs love this as it is an additional source of ongoing revenue for them.
AgTech Alchemy is hosting an event in Chicago called “The Soy-Bean” on August 14th. There is a webinar on “AI Ready Data for Earth Observation” organized by Earth Daily on August 26, 2025 featuring Sachi Desai and I.
It is a cultural issue first
The Right to Repair debate in agriculture is not just a battle over software and access to diagnostic data. It is a conflict deeply rooted in the cultural identity of the American farmer. It is related to the technological transformation of the farm.
Self-sufficiency was and is a hallmark of farming life. The ability to fix one's own equipment was not just a practical necessity but a point of pride. This long standing cultural strain is now in conflict with an age of digitally driven agriculture. Farm equipment are now sophisticated computers on wheels.
These machines rely heavily on a network of sensors, on-board computers (known as Engine Control Units or ECUs), and millions of lines of proprietary software code (firmware) to operate. This software controls not only advanced precision agriculture functions like GPS guidance and variable rate application but also core operational systems, including engine performance, transmission shifting, and emissions controls.
It has altered the relationship between farmers and the tools of their trade. It has altered the level of control between the equipment manufacturer and the farmer.
A farmer with a mechanical aptitude could diagnose and repair most problems. Fixing equipment with a wrench and some bailing wire was and is a core part of the farming identity as it represents ingenuity and independence. It has economic value as it minimizes downtime during critical crop growing stages like planting, spraying, and harvest.
Deep integration of software has changed the nature of repair. A mechanical failure, such as a faulty sensor or a worn-out injector, is now often a software problem as well. The new component must be electronically recognized and authorized by the machine's central computer system.
It requires specialized diagnostic software to tell the ECU that a valid repair has been made and to clear any associated error codes. Without this digital "handshake," the machine may refuse to operate. The farmer's toolbox, once filled with wrenches and sockets, now requires a laptop with proprietary software, which is typically controlled by the manufacturer.
Right to repair in agriculture
Traditionally there has been a history of years of software locks with online battles and court cases, though the industry has shown movement on its own along with some state laws forcing their hands.
In 2023, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) was able to get the key agriculture OEMs to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which covered about 70% of the agriculture equipment out there. It included Deere, AGCO, CNH and Kubota.
This was followed up by the 2024 Colorado’s farm R2R law, which was the first binding state statute requiring access on fair/reasonable terms regardless of MOUs.
Concerning a requirement that a manufacturer of digital electronic equipment facilitate the repair of its equipment by providing certain other persons with the resources needed to repair the manufacturer's digital electronic equipment.
John Deere has been providing a customer-facing repair tool called the Customer Service Advisor for some time now.
What have other industries done?
Other industries like the home appliance industry, automobile industry, and consumer electronics are further along that agriculture in standardizing access to parts, tools, and data. This is especially true with automobiles where a decade-plus of laws and industry collaboration has normalized independent repair.
The origins of automotive R2R can be traced back to federal environmental regulation. The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments mandated that all vehicles built after 1994 be equipped with on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems to monitor emissions.
The law also required automakers to provide independent repair shops with the same emissions-related service information that they provided to their franchised dealers. This established the foundational principle of shared access to diagnostic information.
However, as technology advanced, manufacturers began to restrict access to the growing volume of data flowing through these systems. This led to the first formal R2R legislative efforts, with a federal bill introduced as early as 2001. The movement achieved its first major victory in 2012 when Massachusetts passed the Motor Vehicle Owners' Right to Repair Act, which mandated that automakers sell the same diagnostic and repair tools to independent shops and consumers that they provided to their dealer networks.
For most car makes and models in the United States, you can go to multiple independent dealers and service businesses for parts and repairs.
Agriculture can take some important lessons from the auto industry. For example the auto industry has standardized on common connectors, use standardized service data schemas, and neutral listing sites for tools and documents. (Independent Auto Repairers, Automakers Strike Major Right-To-Repair Pact, 2023).
Deere’s Customer Service Advisor
Agriculture OEMs began to make their full-featured diagnostic software, such as John Deere's "Service ADVISOR," available to their network of authorized dealerships starting in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
For OEMs, this aftermarket is immensely profitable. The revenue generated from parts and service can be a more significant and stable profit center than the initial sale of the equipment itself. Some analyses suggest that the profit margins on repairs can be as much as five times higher than the margins on new equipment sales.
For example, from a 2015 report on Farm Equipment titled “A Dealer’s Ideal Revenue Mix” (highlights by me)
The key is to end up with an operating margin of 5% or better. To do this, your need a healthy dose of service and parts revenue since wholegoods will at best get you to an honest (with all write-downs) 2.5% bottom line with volume included. Our parts profit benchmark is 12% bottom line and service is about 15%. So to get 5%-plus overall, you will need for parts and service to be 25% or more of your total business.
This has been the central economic and dare I say, the cultural driver of the R2R conflict.
It was positioned as a solution that empowered customers to perform their own diagnostics and repairs. CSA was a subscription-based digital database providing access to a wealth of information, including operator's manuals, technical manuals, and diagnostic guides.
When paired with a physical Electronic Data Link (EDL) cable connecting a laptop to the machine, the downloaded CSA application allowed users to perform several key functions. They could read active and stored diagnostic trouble codes, clear those codes after a repair, and perform a range of limited calibrations. At the same time, it did not give the ability to reprogram machine controllers to customers and the reprogramming was reserved for the full, dealer-only version.
It meant that while a farmer or an independent mechanic could diagnose a problem and even physically replace a part, they could not complete the final, essential software step for many advanced repairs. They would still be forced to call in an authorized dealer technician to "bless" the new part with their proprietary software, often at significant cost and with considerable delay.
Farmers and independent mechanics, who had long been able to service equipment, were now locked out of a growing number of essential repairs. They could replace a part, but they could not perform the final, critical software step to complete the job. The purchase of a piece of equipment was effectively tied to the mandatory future purchase of repair services from the manufacturer's dealer network.
Deere’s PRO Service
The new capability from Deere with the PRO service launched a few days ago inside JD Operations Center is a meaningful shift compared to the old customer service advisor.
Deere explicitly lists previously dealer‑only repairs, including controller software reprogramming and calibrations and step‑by‑step workflows and wiring to be available to end customers. That’s materially beyond the old Customer Service ADVISOR (which was largely diagnostics, code clearing, and limited calibrations).
This new level of access is delivered through a new business model. It is available with an annual license of $ 195 per machine for individual customers and for $ 5,995 for an entire fleet of a given business. This model transforms repair capability from a one-time tool purchase or a simple information subscription into a recurring revenue stream for Deere.
Pro Service is available through John Deere’s Operations Center platform. Farmers connect their machinery to the platform via serial number, but more advanced service, such as software reprogramming, requires an electronic data link.
The new capability still requires serialized access for reprogramming purposes. Other control points like cloud dependence, account permissions, and potential “restricted repair” carve outs can be tightened in the future.
Deere’s strategy evolution
The transition from Customer Service Advisor to Operations Center PRO Service is a smart move by Deere. It is pivot designed to create a new, more defensible, and highly profitable business model. While Deere has eased the restriction of having to work with your authorized dealer for software re-programming, it has converted the restriction into a software subscription.
PRO Service is not a standalone application but an integrated, premium tier within the existing John Deere Operations Center.
Deere is executing an ecosystem strategy. This is similar to the Amazon Prime strategy.
It increases the value of the platform, deepens customer engagement, and increases switching costs associated with a move to a different equipment brand. Deere is being responsive to customer needs. It is strengthening its long-term strategic position, while opening up a new revenue stream.
The more a farmer relies on the Operations Center for data management, fleet logistics, and now critical repairs, the more entrenched they become in the Deere ecosystem.
An inflection point?
The Right to Repair movement in the ag equipment industry represents an inflection point, due to the technological advancement of sensors, software, and AI, and an expression of conventional ownership rights by a traditionally self-reliant customer base.
The industry’s response has moved from non-binding MoUs to monetized availability of previously withheld capabilities, and other in-between solutions like rental or direct purchase of diagnostic tools from dealers (CNH & AGCO).
The future of Right to Repair is not clear, though the most probable outcome is an evolving equilibrium. The threat of more states passing Colorado-style legislation will continue to compel OEMs to liberalize repair access, but they might do so through controlled, paid platforms.