Kubota acquires crop-monitoring company Bloomfield Robotics

Kubota North America Corp. has acquired Bloomfield Robotics Inc., a Pittsburgh-based company specializing in crop monitoring technology.

Bloomfield Robotics offers services that monitor the health and performance of specialty crops using advanced imaging and artificial intelligence, serving growers across seven countries and three continents. Kubota North America’s parent company, Kubota Corp., is based in Osaka, Japan, so the tractor brand also has a well-known international reach. 

“Combining AI-driven technology with our legacy quality products will enable Kubota to solve real issues facing agriculture. This acquisition is a key milestone for Kubota’s strategic vision to provide comprehensive smart agriculture solutions,” said M. Brett McMickell, chief technology officer for Kubota North America, which is based in Grapevine, Texas, and serves as the central business hub for all KNA companies in the U.S. and Canada.

Bloomfield Robotics uses specially designed cameras to provide plant-level health assessments for crops such as grapes, blueberries, and other specialty produce. These cameras, mounted on tractors and other farm vehicles, capture detailed, geo-located images of plants across a farm. The data collected is processed by Bloomfield’s AI, offering insights into factors like fruit color, maturity, and size. These insights help growers optimize harvest timing and efficiency, reduce labor costs, and improve overall operational productivity.

“The Bloomfield vision from our founding was to provide continuous plant-level knowledge to every specialty crop farmer around the world. This acquisition brings that vision forward at a scale and speed we could not have imagined. Fortunately, we’ve been working closely together for over two years, so we have a running start at achieving this vision. We’re truly excited for what’s to come,” said Mark DeSantis, president and CEO of Bloomfield Robotics.

Kubota’s focus on automating and integrating data-driven technologies in specialty crop farming aligns with its strategic goal of advancing agriculture innovation in this sector.