StarFire came about after a meeting in 1994 among John Deere engineers who were attempting to chart a course for future developments. At the time, a number of smaller companies were attempting to introduce yield-mapping systems combining a GPS receiver with a grain counter, which produced maps of a field showing its yield.
StarFire arose from a 1994 conference of John Deere engineers who aimed to chart their course for future progress. Concurrently, several smaller businesses were trying to introduce yield-mapping systems that integrated GPS and grain counting capabilities, which produced detailed maps of field yields.