Ep. 223 - Sentera Drone Tech + John Deere = Better Field Prescriptions
Agriculture Technology Podcast
RDO Equipment Co.
4.4 • 49 Ratings
🗓️ 15 September 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What used to take 3 days now takes just 4 hours, thanks to drone-based weed mapping and real-time analytics. In this episode of the Agriculture Technology Podcast, discover how Sentera’s technology is transforming how growers manage fields, make decisions and generate more precise field prescriptions. Host Tony Kramer talks with Sentera’s Eric Taipale and Kevin Friedenberg to explore how drone-based imagery, sensors and software are impacting agriculture. From Sentera’s startup to its acquisition by John Deere, this conversation dives deep into the tools, technologies and vision shaping the future of precision farming. You’ll learn about: • How Direct Georeferencing (DGR) improves drone efficiency and reduces data volume • SmartScripts Weeds and its ability to deliver species-level weed maps in under 4 hours • How SmartScripts works with See & Spray to optimize sprayer performance • FieldAgent software and its integration with John Deere Operations Center • What John Deere’s acquisition of Sentera means for the future of UAV imagery • Sentera’s sensor compatibility with leading drone brands, including DJI
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Tony Kramer, your host of the Agriculture Technology podcast, and I'm sitting down with |
| 0:06.5 | agriculture technology and equipment experts to help you enhance your operation for today, tomorrow, and into the future. |
| 0:14.1 | In this episode, I talk with Eric Teipola and Kevin Friedenberg about Centera drones and sensors. |
| 0:23.3 | With that, let's dive into the show. |
| 0:25.6 | Like I said, we are going to be talking about some Centera drones and sensors in this |
| 0:32.1 | episode. |
| 0:33.1 | Before we get into it, I want to learn a little bit about our guests, Eric and Kevin. So |
| 0:38.5 | Eric and Kevin, why don't you introduce yourselves? Tell us a little bit about who you are, |
| 0:43.5 | what you do, and how you got to where you are today. Hi, Tony. Thanks very much for having us. |
| 0:49.3 | I'm Eric Teipola. I was most recently the CTO of Centera. And way back 10 years ago, I was part of the founding team. |
| 0:57.7 | My background is in really product and engineering. |
| 1:01.5 | I've been doing unmanned systems of one type or another for about 28 years, which starts |
| 1:08.0 | to make me feel more old than experienced. |
| 1:09.9 | But I was really fortunate to grow up in the |
| 1:13.0 | defense industry at a time when these are becoming prevalent. So I've worked on unmanned systems that |
| 1:17.6 | swim under the water, fly in the air, big systems, small systems. As an engineer, my interest |
| 1:23.6 | is more so in the various streams of data, the sensor systems, the actual information |
| 1:30.5 | that flows off of these systems and the tools that have been developed, principally software |
| 1:34.2 | tools to make sense of different types of data and bring it together and understand as |
| 1:39.2 | quickly as possible the state of the environment that the system is observing. |
| 1:44.7 | My name is Kevin Friedenberg. |
| 1:46.5 | Earlier this year with the acquisition, I became the general manager at Centera. |
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