BiC (Bourgault Intelligent Control)

When spring seeding arrived, BiC moved from promise to performance. Thanks to a substantial group of cooperators—farmers whose combined operations span over a million acres—BiC was put to the ultimate test. The verdict? It delivered exceptionally well.

For added peace of mind, Bourgault installed BiC components alongside Apollo systems, giving cooperators the option to revert if needed. The result? Not a single operator switched back. Confidence in BiC was unanimous.

In June, Bourgault showcased these results at its annual ProSeed event in Minot, ND, alongside the Seeding is Believing event for dealers and customers. Two cooperators—Bill Summers of Geraldine, MT, and Kyle Bauer of Blaisdell, ND—joined a roundtable discussion to share their experiences after running BiC for their entire spring seeding season. Here’s what they had to say.

COOPERATORS’ IMPRESSIONS OF BiC

Bill Summers:

“That BiC is the simplest system there is. Running that BiC system—I mean, a Super Cub pilot could handle that. My X40? You’ve got to be an F-16 pilot to run that. It’s simple. It works. I have hardly any experience with Apple platforms other than my little tablet for blockage, but this system does everything it needs to do, and you can teach anybody to run it. You hit a home run!”

Kyle Bauer:

“It really is everything you guys talked about at the beginning, the seed plan, the mapping, all of it. It’s just a really simple monitor to run through. I’d like to say you told a lie up here, but you haven’t. It works really well.”

“One thing I noticed is how clean it makes the cab. Everyone who rode with me this spring said, ‘Boy, it cleans up the cab.’ Everything is visually easy—your BiC has your metering, your John Deere has your mapping, and it’s all there at the same time. On the old system, you were swiping, doing this and that. Now, everything’s right there. It’s just really simple that way.”

SEEDING MADE SIMPLE

One of the primary goals of BiC was to create a simpler, more intuitive seeding control system without sacrifi cing the features and flexibility customers expect.

A great example is the Seed Plan feature. If you’ve used the Tank Optimizer before, think of Seed Plan as Tank Optimizer on steroids. Everything you need is on one easy-to-use page.

Instead of focusing on individual tank rates, Seed Plan works with full product rates. BiC automatically assigns products to tanks for maximum acres per fill and synchronizes metering so tanks empty at the same time. Setup takes mere minutes, and plans can be saved for quick reuse. BiC also automatically enables or disables tanks and fans based on your Seed Plan—no more navigating multiple screens to make adjustments.

Kyle Bauer on Seed Plan:

“Everything you said at the beginning is true. When you build a Seed Plan, you do it all on one page. It asks you question by question: what fans you want to use, where you want to put it. You’re not going to four or five different places and forgetting where you were. Before, you’d spend an hour looking for settings. Now, if you do your Seed Plans early, you push one button, calibrate, and you’re gone. It’s that simple. Honestly, I don’t think you can express enough how major this feature is.”

EFFORTLESS DATA INTEGRATION

Data management is essential for today’s operations, and BiC was designed to make it seamless. By utilizing the tractor’s task controller, BiC integrates directly with John Deere Operations Center or CNH FieldOps, streaming seeding data automatically—no USB transfers required.

Bill Summers:

“I’m a John Deere guy through and through. I’ve been running Deere disc drills for 15 years, and the plug-and-play thing—it’s just simple. Everything runs through my Ops Center. Right now, we’re running it all through Ops Center, and it’s as close as you can get to plug-and-play without five miles of harness. It’s seamless.”

Kyle Bauer:

“I went through a lot of my data. The mapping is there, and it works great for guys who share data with their agronomist. They can link in and see seeded acres, all of it. It’s just a really good connection to Ops Center. You’re not moving data on a USB, it’s just automatically there. That’s the future: easy data management.”

THE BiC TEAM: BUILT WITHIN BOURGAULT

From day one, Bourgault committed to building BiC from the ground up, right here within Bourgault. Our dedicated BiC team spent years designing and developing every aspect of the system. Before introducing BiC to cooperators in spring 2025, the team rigorously tested it internally at Bourgault for multiple seasons.

This in-house approach ensures Bourgault can respond quickly to dealer and customer feedback, adapt to changes, and continuously improve the system. Both Kyle Bauer and Bill Summers experienced firsthand the benefits of having the BiC team within Bourgault’s walls.

Bill Summers:

“I didn’t have 30 minutes of downtime with the BiC system this spring—total. It just worked. A couple little things we thought were probably on the Deere side caused a few glitches, but if I had a problem, I texted and had a phone call within minutes.”

Kyle Bauer:

“Honestly, it worked so flawlessly that they didn’t spend much time out here—it just worked really well. They were great about answering questions, and it was an enjoyable trial period. Some of these things you get into, you wonder if you’re making a mistake, but this one worked out really well.”

“As far as glitches, I really didn’t have any. I had one disconnect, just relearning a little bit, but they were there to answer questions. No mechanical problems at all. Sectional control timings were a little confusing, but once we knew the procedure it worked like any other system.”

“On software updates: Yeah, the update was there— you hit one button, wait a little bit, and it’s done.”

LOOKING AHEAD: SPRING 2026 AND BEYOND

The rollout of BiC couldn’t have been more successful—just listen to Kyle and Bill’s feedback. In spring 2026, we’ll expand BiC across more Bourgault systems, adding hundreds of thousands of acres seeded with BiC technology.

And we’re already planning what’s next. For Model Year 2027, Bourgault will introduce a stand-alone version of BiC, built on the same trusted hardware but with integrated mapping. This gives operators the freedom to run BiC independently—no advanced tractor task controllers required.

This evolution unlocks the next big step: Bourgault Connect—a cloud-based platform designed to make data management effortless. With Bourgault Connect, you’ll be able to import field boundaries, variable-rate prescriptions, and other agronomic data directly from leading farm management tools.

No manual transfers. No extra steps. Just seamless connectivity for smarter seeding decisions.

Coming in 2027:

• Independent Operation: Built-in mapping for full flexibility.
• Trusted Hardware: Proven components with added versatility.
• Intuitive Experience: The simplicity operators love, without compromise.
• Future-Ready Platform: Designed to support Bourgault Connect for seamless cloud-based data management.