A farm in Sonoma County, California had 27 tractor driver positions open and posted the positions on various job boards. The farm didn’t get a single applicant for weeks. A few weeks later, the owners onboarded an autonomous tractor system for the farm and updated the job listing to say they were looking for an agtech operator position. In the preferred qualifications they listed “video game experience.” The applications came rolling in. “You’ve opened up a whole new workforce for agriculture,” Tim Bucher, CEO of the ag startup Agtonomy, said. “One that’s never driven a tractor before.”
Tractor giant Deere and software startup Agtonomy have emerged as some of the major players driving the autonomous revolution. While the two companies are focused on different sectors in agriculture, their end goals are the same: Helping farmers make more money by making smarter decisions about their operations. There’s obviously struggles with labor shortages around the country, and so people are always looking at ways to how they can get more done in the shortest amount of time, said John Deere’s Micheal Porter.
-NAFB