NEW ORLEANS & MILWAUKEE - The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) and the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) presented the fifth-annual Davidson Prize to the top three innovative products, selected from the AE50 honorees on Thursday, March 10 at Commodity Classic in New Orleans, La.

The Davidson Prize was designed to celebrate breakthrough innovations in areas of agricultural, food and biological systems engineering.

"We’re excited about the advancement of ag engineering and the positive impacts it continues to have on farmers’ ability to work more efficiently,” said Curt Blades, senior vice president of Agriculture for AEM. “These three products deliver on solutions that truly represent the spirit of J.B. Davidson and the innovative legacy of agriculture.”

Winning entries are:

• AGCO Corporations’ Fendt Rogator 900 Series Applicator
• VeriGrain's Automated Sampling & Data Management System
•  John Deere's See & Spray Select

“Five years ago, ASABE and AEM came together to create an award that further celebrated innovation in agriculture and brought additional recognition to those who embody the spirit of J.B. Davidson,” said Darrin Drollinger, executive director at ASABE. “Over the years, the products featured have represented the diversity of agricultural engineering, as well as the variety of companies that continue to bring advanced technology and exciting improvements to the marketplace. J.B. Davidson would be amazed at how advanced farm equipment has become.”

The Davidson Prize is named for J.B. Davidson, the father of modern agricultural engineering. It gives a nod to the storied past of agricultural engineering and pays homage to those engineers, like J.B. Davidson, who aspire to find a better way. Winners were selected from the AE50 honorees, announced at the Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference in February in Louisville, Ky.