Name Brand Justification.pdf

NAME BRAND JUSTIFICATION

MANDATORY TEMPLATE FOR FEDERAL PROCUREMENTS UNDER THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

2. Anticipated Period of Performance: Single purchase executed by 9/30/2022

3. Does the anticipated Period of Performance include option years? If no, explain. No. Single purchase.

4. Sources Sought Notice posted to Contract Opportunities and attached to this document?

Yes No

5. Market Research conducted and attached to this document? If not, explain.

No. Background information used for this justification was not obtained from a one-time market research activity. It is based on a synthesis of the technical representative’s knowledge obtained from many years of conducting research on and using agricultural data collection systems.

6. Is this a new requirement or a follow-on to an expiring award?

New requirement Follow-on to an expiring award

7. Describe the requirement. Please note that the requirement is the minimum acceptable specification or capability, and is not necessarily the best in the industry. Please note whether any additional follow-on work is anticipated in response to the current proposed effort.

The USDA-ARS CSWQRU conducts precision cropping systems research at the field scale. New farming systems being researched have required enhancements to field equipment, meaning that current tractors no longer have the power required. Therefore, we are seeking a new, higher-powered tractor (minimum 120 PTO HP) to support current and future research. This tractor will also function as a key piece of instrumentation that delivers data for our research program. Each tractor manufacturer has its own proprietary data formats and systems. All our current tractors used for data collection are John Deere brand, which provides consistency across all the data streams.

Having to adapt to a different format of data from a different brand of tractor would be detrimental to our ongoing research program; therefore, a tractor using John Deere Greenstar technology and compatible with data processing in the John Deere Operations Center is required. This is not only for efficiency, but also for data integrity in our long-term research.

8. List the proposed brand and contact information.

John Deere Procurement can be through any John Deere authorized dealer or reseller.

9. Describe why the proposed brand is the only brand from which the requirement can be obtained. If other brands can provide similar products or services, describe why they cannot meet our particular requirement.

Due to proprietary data formats used by each tractor manufacturer, as described above, only John Deere brand tractors meet the requirement. While there is potential for data collected by other brands of tractor to be converted to the John Deere format, there are major problems with that process that make it unsuitable for use in a research environment: (1) significant person-hours would be required each year; (2) the conversion processes currently available are incomplete in terms of the variables transferred, meaning a loss of key research data; and (3) the additional data processing steps required increase the potential for errors to be introduced into the data.