Autonomous Tractors Extend Farm Operations

Autonomous Tractors Extend Farm Operations

Tim Hammerich
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
It’s time for your Farm of the Future Report. I’m Tim Hammerich.

When Craig Rupp announced his company, Sabanto would be offering field work as a service to farmers using a driverless tractor, how do you think they responded?

Rupp… “They were lined up. They were like, I want to be a part of this. This sounds cool. I want to see it. I have soybean acres.”

The reasons for the excitement run deeper than just the novelty of this, and beyond even the obvious potential labor savings.

Rupp… “Consider the farmer that we're performing tillage for. The people he has on staff, they have CDL licenses. And his job right now, job #1 is to get the crops out of the field. And he wants as many truck drivers as he possibly can, so he can run longer hours. And so while we're performing as tillage, he's taken his staff that he dedicated to tillage and they're driving trucks, they're driving combines, they're running grain carts. We're an extension of his facilities or his operations. That's the way we're viewed. We happen to be doing it autonomously. Great.”

Sabanto started driverless field operations as a service in the 2019 crop year, and improved their process in 2020. They plan to run more tractors on more acres this coming season.

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