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AGCO's Fendt brand, with manufacturing facilities in Germany and Italy, will contend in the coming months with a fallout from the Russian-Ukrainian war -- deep cuts in energy supplies that have in better times flowed into Germany and other nations from Russia. Restrictions on energy supplies are the result of Germany's and its European Union partners' military and economic support for Ukraine.

AGCO Chairman and CEO Eric Hansotia talked to DTN/Progressive Farmer about the company's energy challenges in Europe this winter.

"(This) is an interesting topic," Hansotia said. "It's a real topic. But I think it's also a little more dramatic in some of the media than reality. We've been working with each of our factories to find Plan-B energy sources, where we can either use electricity or oil or wood chips in some conditions, more renewable fuels."

In a video interview (https://www.dtnpf.com/…), Hansotia offers additional thoughts about the energy challenges facing AGCO in Europe and its ability to deliver machinery from its German plants to North America, such as AGCO's new Fendt 700 Vario tractor.

Hansotia discusses AGCO's automation and autonomy strategy. He said the manufacturer is working through a list of about 150 items that it wants to automate as it moves toward autonomous machines.

Hansotia discussed AGCO's Precision Planting's new and automated soil sampling system. He said he believes that soil sampling system will fundamentally disrupt the cost and improve the timeliness of soil sampling.

Finally, Hansotia discusses AGCO's plans for developing alternative energy systems to power its equipment and its large, dealer-led investment in training technicians to service its growing stable of farming machinery.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @DMillerPF

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