Autonomy In Ag Is Firing On All Cylinders Right Now, And It Looks Different Depending On Where You Live
Farm Journal Report: Autonomy in Ag
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Autonomy in agriculture is starting to fire on all cylinders across the U.S, but the size — and capabilities — depends on geography.
From a fully autonomous New Holland tractor (concept model yet to be released in North America) and a grain cart powered by Raven Omni Drive autonomous technology to Bobcat’s new fully autonomous electric powered tractor designed for rugged and hilly landscapes in the West, a transformation in ag equipment is unfolding right before our eyes.
“It couldn't be a more interesting and exciting time to be in the equipment industry, or in agriculture in general,” says Curt Blades, senior vice president at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM). “But specifically in the equipment industry because of all the new technology that has been released, really, within the last six months.”
Blades says in the western U.S., the introduction of automation is geared toward answering a major need: the shortage of labor.
“If you think of harvesting a strawberry, the strawberry is a soft fruit that needs careful consideration,” Blades says. “We've never been able to mechanically harvest a strawberry in an efficient way because we haven't had the technology, the artificial intelligence or the sensors to be able to detect whether it's the right shade of green, the right shade of red, and then also handle it with kid gloves. That's available now. And that's amazing how much different that technology is quickly exploding."
Bigger, Not Smaller in the Midwest
In the Midwest, the autonomy trends look a bit different. Instead of smaller, driverless equipment, major equipment manufacturers made a splash at recent farms shows with the largest horsepower combine and tractors yet, all with autonomous capabilities.
Case IH showcased its newest grain harvesting technology with the AF 11 combine during National Farm Machinery Show. The massive combine isn’t just a monster in size, has a dual rotor design and ability to harvest 8,000 bushels of corn per hour.
John Deere rolled out the 2025 S7 combine and 9RX tractor during Commodity Classic, also monster machines that turned heads. The latest introduction are just two examples of show stopping equipment introductions that are also stacked with ag tech automation capabilities.
“We've been very clear that by 2030, we want to have a full production system for corn and soybeans that is fully autonomous,” Aaron Wetzel, vice president of production systems for the production and precision ag business for John Deere, told us during Commodity Classic earlier this month. “But you'll see us bringing out over the successive years, more autonomy solutions in each of the steps across the production system with tractor behind me today, customers can order with autonomy ready capabilities. So that means that in the future, when the autonomy stack is available, we can plug that into the tractor, and they have full autonomy capabilities.
Related News: John Deere Announces Tech Focused 2025 Introductions
Changes Over the Past 5 Years
Wetzel says in his 35 year career with the company, he’s amazed with the amount of change he’s seen in equipment and ag tech in just the past five years.
“That's fueled by things like artificial intelligence, its machine learning capabilities, that is fueling our ability to be able to offer more to customers, and allow them to realize this productivity advantage that we see through the utilization of technologies,” says Wetzel.
It's clear ag technology is driving changes in equipment today. Blades says as he looks across the entire equipment landscape, trends are unfolding quickly in ag tech.
“I don't think we can quite comprehend how different the space is going to look 10, 20, 30 years from now,” says Blades. “Whether it's bigger and bigger machines that have elements of autonomy built into them to solve for labor shortages, maybe it's using sensors that let you see and detect, and then react and do something different, that's the kind of autonomy that we're absolutely seeing today, because it's addressing both labor shortages, and also creating some real operational efficiencies for all those machines.”
Technology as a Tool
Kubota is another company embracing the changing world of ag equipment today. During the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, a premier show focused on the latest tech in more than just agriculture, the company unveiled its vision for an autonomous future.
"We need technology to harvest the data so we can make better decisions,” says Todd Stucke, president of Kubota Tractor Corporation. “If we can make better decisions, then the sustainability, doing more with less, if we can start doing that, w can also help labor usages. So, can we automate our equipment or use technology to make the best operator, your everyday operator, more efficient. I think that's where we're investing in.”
Stucke is also the current chairman of AEM, which allows him to explore autonomy on a much broader scale.
“The question of, ‘Is autonomy coming?’ Yes, it's coming. As chairman of AEM, one thing that we need to do as an industry is make sure the regulation follows the technology. So, we don't want to have an autonomous tractor that we have to have a person in it. So those are the type of things that our industry must address,” says Stucke.
Biggest Hurdle: Falling Commodity Prices
The biggest hurdle for ag tech adoption in the coming years, just may be commodity prices, with most major equipment manufacturers forecasting both equipment and technology sales to fall this year anywhere from 6% to 20%.
“The challenge we have is that technology investments in general, even in a declining commodity market can pay for itself in one year,” Darryl Matthews, a recently retired executive with Trimble, told Farm Journal's technology editor Matthew Grassi.
Matthews says the greatest example of ROI may be with the most widely adopted technology today.
“Probably the best, or most well-known technology, is guidance and steering technology,” says Matthews. “It’s at about 80% penetration, but it can pay $15 an acre, on average corn production operations, back to a farmer in less overlap, less fuel, and less inputs, but $15 an acre.”
Matthews says if you expand that across 650 acres, that’s around $10,000 in savings, which is what an average guidance system costs.
“But if you have 650 acres of farmland and you get $15 an acre, that's going to pay for itself in one year,” says Matthews.
Technology as a tool is what will allow farmers to make more precise real-time decisions, uncovering a future of smart farming like nothing we’ve ever seen.
“The impact is going to be very interesting for the next five years, because we're just beginning to see the rapid adoption of that sensor technology that optics technology and seeing what that means for a farmer,” says Blades. “The term smart farming can mean a lot of different things, but I’ll tell you what it will mean. It will mean better operational efficiency for all farmers and a more sustainable message for society in general.”
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