I see that the social media giants, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, have agriculture in their sights. Earlier this month, John Deere announced that it was partnering with Musk’s SpaceX to provide a satellite communications (SATCOM) service to farmers.

Using Musk’s Starlink network, SATCOM will connect machines through satellites to unlock technologies such as autonomy, real-time data sharing, remote diagnostics, and more.

Given the success of Musk’s interventions with the long-established platform Twitter (now X), I can’t help but wonder what could possibly go wrong when dealing with another long-established machinery player like John Deere.

Are we on the brink of a John Deere rebrand? “Y” does have a nice ring to it.

Musk’s move comes on the back of the recent news, reported in this column last week, that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is getting into the cattle business on his 1,400ac ranch in Hawaii.