Agco invited members of the agricultural media to fields near Salina, Kansas, in June to see the company’s first prototype retrofit autonomy kit for tractors.
The system is in its final stage of development and the company expects an initial version to be commercially released in 2025.
Why it matters: Companies and farmers have been trying to tease out the potential and limitations of autonomous farm equipment for years.
Read Also
Horticulture farm practices in the limelight
The 2025 Horticulture School in Brandon covered tools to extend Manitoba’s vegetable and fruit growing season, horticulture crop agronomy and new research like peat sustainability.
The demonstrations in Kansas featured two parts, one with an autonomous tractor pulling a grain cart and another with an autonomous tractor doing tillage work.
Agco’s evolving system is called Outrun. Unlike other autonomous technology, this one is meant as an add-on and designed to work on machines from multiple brands. The Outrun kit has so far been engineered to work on John Deere 8R tractors, as well as select models of Fendt. There’s promise that other models will become compatible in the future.
Eric Hansotia, Agco’s chief executive officer, believes retrofits and being brand agnostic makes the most sense for initial introduction of a disruptive technology like autonomy.
“If you think about how guidance grew, it didn’t grow because the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) said ‘we’re going to deliver guidance.’ It grew through the retrofit business. Farmers would buy the machine and add guidance on.
“The guidance was way better for them and it grew. Then the OEMs said OK, let’s make it easy and do it from the factory. We think autonomy is going to be the same way.”
There is a stumbling block. To make digital systems work in machines of different brands, engineers need access to the CANbus systems of each machine, which brands have largely tried to prevent. But Seth Crawford, Agco’s senior vice-president and general manager (precision ag and digital) doesn’t see that as an insurmountable problem.
“For those of us old enough to remember, in the early days of guidance you couldn’t actually put guidance systems on some brands of equipment. There were cease and desist letters sent from OEMs to guidance companies.
“Now that’s all behind us. There are agreements, requirements and things in place that have enabled that, and I think we’re going to see that going forward (with autonomy).”
As Outrun moves toward commercial availability, Agco wants it to eventually be capable of multiple functions so producers won’t need to buy separate systems for every new field operation. The eventual goal is to have one tractor fitted with one system that can perform a full range of duties.
The main components bolt onto the roof of a tractor cab, and use Doppler and Lidar sensors to “see” the environment. There are limited electronics in the cab as well, but the tractor maintains its ability to be operated normally.
The first grain cart system to be market ready will allow one cart to work with one combine. Work is progressing to expand that, allowing a pair of carts to service a single combine. That is at an earlier stage and hasn’t yet seen trials.
The Outrun system works completely offline without any internet connectivity once field parameters are established. The combine operator communicates with the tractor using a tablet. Equipment mounted on the combine enables direct communication between machines.
The tillage function of Outrun is also in an earlier phase of development than the grain cart, and the company hasn’t set a firm date for release.
During Agco’s second quarter financial presentation to investors this summer, Hansotia expanded on Agco’s plans for autonomous technology development.
“We anticipate having autonomous solutions for all parts of the crop cycle by 2030. Targeted spraying will launch later in 2024 on a retrofit basis with an OEM solution in 2026. Also in 2024 we will be launching our autonomous retrofit solutions for grain cart applications.”
