“Mr. Kverneland Mechatronics” retires

Ton van der Voort van der Kleij retired on the 1st of July, after a successful career at Kverneland Group. After 43 years in the business, he handed over the reins of Kverneland Mechatronics.

Ton van der Voort van der Kleij is a well known person in the precision farming business. He started as Project leader of Electronics for Vicon Nieuw-Vennep in The Netherlands back in 1982. At that time, Ton was given responsibility to set up an electronics department for agricultural implements, which is today known as Kverneland Group Mechatronics. Quite an achievement, considering there was no internet back then.

The largest achievement of Ton is the development and implementation of the ISOBUS patent in the mid-’80s. It made Kverneland Group known as “the ISOBUS company”.

This patented system became the Industry Standard and stimulated further ISOBUS developments. This enabled all manufacturers to work with this new standard for their products, a major step forward in making precision farming easy for the farmer. Ton was also involved in the founding of AEF  (Agriculture Industry Electronics Foundation), which has taken over the responsibilities of this patent. Kverneland Group continued to expand the offering in smart and precision farming solutions, which Kverneland Group ‘’labeled’’ with the iM FARMING communication concept, explaining product functionalities in an easy way.

Ton saw Kverneland Group Mechatronics grow from being with a few employees to the company it is today with over 80 people. Responsible for producing IsoMatch Tellus terminals, digital tools like IsoMatch FarmCentre, and precision farming licenses like IsoMatch GEOCONTROL. Around the office, he is known for his great smile and positive attitude, and as a man with an “open door” policy for everyone. He is seen as a visionary, where the sky is the limit which has been manifested by his successful career.