Autonomous equipment on the horizon for farmers

John Deere unveiled its version of a fully autonomous tractor at the Consumer Electroncis Show, a major trade show that was held in January in Las Vegas.

Case IH unveiled a concept version of its take on the technology back in 2016. The concept vehicle that was unveiled in 2016 was cabless, while an updated version in 2020 showed a cab.

John Deere has not said how much its autonomous tractor will cost. The company has vowed to make the technology available as an aftermarket item on other tractors.

“The autonomous tractor serves a specific purpose: feeding the world,” John Deere said in its press release. “The global population is expected to grow from about 8 billion now to nearly 10 billion people by 2050, increasing the global food demand by 50%.”

John Deere went on to explain that feeding more with less available land and skilled labor present problems.

Iowa State University Field Agronomist Mike Witt, based in Guthrie Center, sees several benefits to autonomous technology, even if it’s in the form of tractorless grain carts, or in other forms.

“Whether it’s wagons that drive themselves, or anything like that, to me it’s all about compaction,” Witt said. “If you can have a component that drives itself without the use of a tractor, then what we’re doing is eliminating some of the compaction and ground coverage that occur. Agronomically, for me it’s all about saving time as well as the some of the compaction that could [be saved] from less traffic in the fields.”

David Davis is a sales specialist with Titan Machinery in Greenfield, a Case IH dealership.

Davis, who has about 30 years experience in the ag industry, said that he would be concerned how well autonomous technology would work here in southwest Iowa because our fields aren’t as cut-and-dry and aren’t as large as they are in other regions, like in Canada where two or three days could be spent planting one field.

“I don’t think your small, farm your own ground guy, is going to be very keen on that in the future. A reason I don’t think it will work around here the best is that we’ve got so many small fields. As far as I know, they can’t drive on the roads themselves, so there’s going to have to be somebody to take those tractors from one farm to the next,” Davis said. “The smaller our farms are, you’ll be in the tractor all the time anyway. On those Candians tens of thousands of acres farms, it makes a lot more sense where they probably plant for two or three days.”