Specialty Crop Market Opportunity December 9, 2010 Dana R. Lonn, PE Managing Director, Center for Advanced Technology The Toro Company

What is the market opportunity? What is needed to make a potential new market successful? –Meets an identified customer need either articulated or unarticulated –Solves a customer business problem where value exceed the cost –Has sufficient scale to be worth the investment to develop the product –Has geographic diversity

Hypothesis Mid-sized acreage sites represent a larger opportunity –25 acres to 1,000 acres –<25 acres too small to justify automation Hobby farm Large garden Low revenue –>1,000 acres large enough to justify custom automation

Acres Specialty Crops

Medium Operations 5 Larger Market of Farms & Total Acres Percentage, Strongest Area of Potential Source: 2007 Census of Agriculture

Farms Acres 6 Potential Market Spotted: Greater Amount of Farms, With Largest Amount of Acreage

Large Operations 7 Not Enough Farms to Make This Market a Feasible Choice Source: 2007 Census of Agriculture

Small Operations 8 Largest Market of Growers, Yet Acreage Small & Logistics Potentially Not Feasible Source: 2007 Census of Agriculture

Worldwide Statistics 9 *Includes: Pecans, Almonds, Walnuts, Pistachios

Next Steps Test the hypothesis Watch customers to identify automation opportunities Better understand business model Are there opportunities to combine across crops to increase the scale? Develop proof of concept prototypes to test innovation