Testing_electric tractor

[sourgum]

Deere was testing this robotic driver less tractor 2 days ago in Germany. Media release saying all electric tractor, 680 hp , 1000 kw. They did not say how long it will run on a charge. There is a 3 point hitch on front on which a combine cab be can attached. This is so the tractor can be manually driven by a person setting in the cab on the road to another field. No roading without a human and the cab attachment. One prototype has been made. This is not yesterdays tractor but a tractor that might be coming in the future.

 

[Philip d]

Lots of neat inventions coming in the future! It may be Fendt I forget for sure but theres a company developing single row multiple unit robot corn/bean planters too.

 

[SVcummins]

They have an autonomous sprayer as well . They have tried several different autonomous tractors and electric tractors In the past they had one in the early 2000s

 

[Traditional Farmer]

And things like that will be owned by huge mega farms that put the smaller farms out of business,if want less family farms there is your machine to get the job done.Suddenly the BTO
becomes the marginal operator.

 

[SVcummins]

Because a big farm cant be operated by a family . Jude because someone doesnt wear ragged overalls and a straw hat chewing a stick of grass and spitting tobacco walking barefoot to town doesnt mean they cant be a family farmer . I realize thats your ideal of a farmer but it isnt the case .

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Agree Lots of neat inventions coming in the future!
There will be lots of people resisting change telling us why this can't be done.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> And things like that will be owned by huge mega farms that put the smaller farms out of business

If the target customer is the BTO, why are they testing in Germany, where farms are small and family-owned?

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Testing can take place anywhere,sales are a whole different deal.About every so called advancement in agriculture the last 60 or so years has ended up putting more farmers out of business.

 

[Tony in SD]

I believe that autonomous farm machinery is coming but the words of my uncle keep echoing in my head. He said, You will always need a man to run machines because of what I am doing right now. He was fixing something that had broke on his combine. Until any machine is completely self healing, they will not truly be autonomous.

 

[kip78]

John Deere has r and d facility in Manheim.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Testing can take place anywhere,sales are a whole different deal.About every so called advancement in agriculture the last 60 or so years has ended up putting more farmers out of business.

Strangely, though, those technical advancements haven't put many German farmers out of business. Is it maybe because Germany has fairly protectionist policies regarding small farms, and the US does not?

 

[SVcummins]

Other countries farm economies are a lot different than ours in the USA are .

 

[MarkB_MI]

> John Deere has r and d facility in Manheim.

And they have R&D facilities in the US and elsewhere around the world. If they're developing a product in Europe, it's most likely intended for the European market.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Other countries farm economies are a lot different than ours in the USA are .

Yes, but that doesn't happen by accident. Flying into Germany, it's remarkable to see the patchwork of small farms surrounding a major city, mixed in with numerous small towns. In the US, that land would be paved over by suburbs, or covered by large farms. Germany has different priorities than the US, and it has policies that reflect those priorities. Many parts of the US could retain their former bucolic nature if we made it a priority to do so. The western half of the country was always destined to have large farms because small farms in the west aren't profitable. But east of the Mississippi, we chose suburban sprawl and large farms over small towns and small farms.

 

[SVcummins]

Maybe I should move to another country and be able to farm for a living .

 

[Geo-TH,In]

SV
Are you asking for a go-fund me one way ticket out of this country? LOL

 

[jimg.allentown]

Not every improvement is truly an improvement. Nor is every improvement bad. As always, there will be change. As always, there will be those that embrace change and those that reject change.

My own policy is that each one should be allowed to choose for themselves.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 03:21:03 03/24/22) Testing can take place anywhere,sales are a whole different deal.About every so called advancement in agriculture the last 60 or so years has ended up putting more farmers out of business.

The continuous exodus of farmers from active farming has made it necessary for many manufacturers in the AG industry to research and develop products and machines to enable those still on the farms to do more with fewer farmers.

 

[SVcummins]

I dont know where I would go .

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Maybe I should move to another country and be able to farm for a living .

Those same policies that protect small family farms would make it difficult for a foreigner to enter the business. But I understand many young dairy farmers have come to the US from the Netherlands, because it's much easier for them to buy and operate dairy farms in the US than back home.

 

[SVcummins]

I cant hardly hire anyone to help me .

 

[DoubleR]

If every manufacturer moves in that direction I wonder if they will still have equipment available for the little guys that stick to the old school way of farming. Right now I have some 50 year old equipment that can still get the job done. I also have a couple of newer tractors with the emissions and such but I find it hard to believe they will still be going 50 years from now like my old Farmall. At my age I'm not going to worry about it but you have to wonder if there will be any little or part time guys left 50 years from now as our numbers have already dwindled allot.

 

[jon f mn]

The costs to the public for the goods grown on those small farms are much higher and require a much larger percentage of the average income than here to pay for those small farms. It's not the farmers who make the choices but the city folks. Convince Americans to spend twice as much for food and small farms will come back to America.

 

[caterpillar guy]

The US is yet a capitalist economy where as Germany is not and with that Capitalism will sort the efficient from the less so thus the small farmer can't buy and sell things in a bigger scale to gain the lower prices for inputs and larger prices for out puts. Making him able to work cheaper with lower cost per bushel and more income per bushel as Germany with the smaller farms doe s not gain them that option. One of the other reasons the Ukraine is so vital to the grain/food supply of Europe and Russia. Not to mention the rest of the world.

 

[Loosehandle]

Everything is 240v in Europe so it charges faster he he....

 

[Tramway Guy]

If the target customer is the BTO, why are they testing in Germany, where farms are small and family-owned?

They might be testing in France, which has some very large farms.

 

[redforlife]

Don't think for a minute that these driver-less tractors being tested are going to eliminate the need of a people to operate. Maybe somebody sitting in the drivers seat, YES.

No matter how sophisticated these things are, they will need a baby sitter to some degree.

And then there is, charging/refueling, servicing, maintenance, repair, equipment changes, road transport, trouble fixing diagnostics, the list goes on. I'd be willing to bet, that one person couldn't keep 2 of these things going. And if so, wouldn't dare to leave the location.
I'd be willing to bet that it'd take 4 or 5 people to keep a half a dozen of these things going, would be more like it. Especially if job changes and equipment changes requires PROGRAMMING. And it is doing something that requires being fed product. Such as seed, fertilizer.

About the only benefit I can see of these things is, it might free an OPERATOR up enough to go get some fuel, seed, fertilizer, or maybe lunch, while the equipment runs while they are gone. And in this CRAZY work force world we live in, it won't work like that. The guy that has the know how (nothing short of a technitions) that can operate these things, will be assigned to however many of these he can keep running (wether that be 1 1/2, or 4) and other less intelligent people will be sent out to do all the errand running.

If programming is a big factor, there will be someone added to the office staff to do nothing but just that.

No one in the drivers seat? I'm seeing that. Eliminate workers? I'm not seeing that. Maybe one or two if you get several of these things going.

Kind of like a drone. It can be flown without an on board pilot. But certainly not entirely on its own with NO ONE at its controller.

 

[MarkB_MI]

> Convince Americans to spend twice as much for food and small farms will come back to America.

That's not how supply and demand work. If it was, our system of federal price supports would ensure survival of small farms. In fact, all it does is give the biggest checks to the biggest farmers. If you want to have smaller farms, you have to incentivize making big farms smaller and keeping small farms small. Increasing commodity prices does not do that.

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 12:17:37 03/24/22) Don't think for a minute that these driver-less tractors being tested are going to eliminate the need of a people to operate. Maybe somebody sitting in the drivers seat, YES.

No matter how sophisticated these things are, they will need a baby sitter to some degree.

And then there is, charging/refueling, servicing, maintenance, repair, equipment changes, road transport, trouble fixing diagnostics, the list goes on. I'd be willing to bet, that one person couldn't keep 2 of these things going. And if so, wouldn't dare to leave the location.
I'd be willing to bet that it'd take 4 or 5 people to keep a half a dozen of these things going, would be more like it. Especially if job changes and equipment changes requires PROGRAMMING. And it is doing something that requires being fed product. Such as seed, fertilizer.

About the only benefit I can see of these things is, it might free an OPERATOR up enough to go get some fuel, seed, fertilizer, or maybe lunch, while the equipment runs while they are gone. And in this CRAZY work force world we live in, it won't work like that. The guy that has the know how (nothing short of a technitions) that can operate these things, will be assigned to however many of these he can keep running (wether that be 1 1/2, or 4) and other less intelligent people will be sent out to do all the errand running.

If programming is a big factor, there will be someone added to the office staff to do nothing but just that.

No one in the drivers seat? I'm seeing that. Eliminate workers? I'm not seeing that. Maybe one or two if you get several of these things going.

Kind of like a drone. It can be flown without an on board pilot. But certainly not entirely on its own with NO ONE at its controller.

redforlife, there are hundreds of thousands of robots working everyday now. A friend has maybe eight, They get set up to run, then run many hours by themselves. He bought the first one probably 25 years ago. I have one of my own. It does its job, sometimes it needs attention. It is programmed to try various fixes when it has a problem, if it can't it just shuts itself off, no big deal.

 

[redforlife]

The robots you are talking about, do
the same simple task, no changes, over
and over, repetative, for YEARS. AND,
in the same location.

These driver-less tractors are likely
to do something different in every
task it does, in a different place,
with constant changes. Being outside
in the weather alone, throws variables
at these machines, that your indoor
robots never see.

With all do respect, it's not really
quit the same as an automated dish
washer or something like that.
Or like a robotic vacume cleaner.
Where you can just program it for a
couple 3 rooms, and it's good to go
for the rest of its life. These
driver-less machines will likely be
constantly taken to a different field.
Even if it has a memory and is taken
back to a field it has already been in
before, any changes to the field will
have to be re-programmed (tree fell
over, new fence was built, ditch moved
over or it got bigger/longer). And of
course that is if it's doing the same
task. Doing a different task, it'll
have to be completely re-programmed
for that field. About the only re-
useable data it would have in its
memory would maybe be outside
boundaries, if that happened to of not
changed.

I maybe haven't been around many
robots. But I have planted corn using
GPS and automatic row shut off,
without the auto steer feature. And I
can tell ya this, a day of having
trouble with GPS, is a VERY LONG day.
If these machines are dependent on
GPS, I can only imagine what a
headache these things will be, on a
bad day for GPS!!!!

 

[showcrop]

(quoted from post at 18:24:01 03/24/22) The robots you are talking about, do
the same simple task, no changes, over
and over, repetative, for YEARS. AND,
in the same location.

These driver-less tractors are likely
to do something different in every
task it does, in a different place,
with constant changes. Being outside
in the weather alone, throws variables
at these machines, that your indoor
robots never see.

With all do respect, it's not really


quit the same as an automated dish
washer or something like that.
Or like a robotic vacume cleaner.
Where you can just program it for a
couple 3 rooms, and it's good to go
for the rest of its life. These
driver-less machines will likely be
constantly taken to a different field.
Even if it has a memory and is taken
back to a field it has already been in
before, any changes to the field will
have to be re-programmed (tree fell
over, new fence was built, ditch moved
over or it got bigger/longer). And of
course that is if it's doing the same
task. Doing a different task, it'll
have to be completely re-programmed
for that field. About the only re-
useable data it would have in its
memory would maybe be outside
boundaries, if that happened to of not
changed.

I maybe haven't been around many
robots. But I have planted corn using
GPS and automatic row shut off,
without the auto steer feature. And I
can tell ya this, a day of having
trouble with GPS, is a VERY LONG day.
If these machines are dependent on
GPS, I can only imagine what a
headache these things will be, on a
bad day for GPS!!!!

The ones that my friend has at his machine shop may run a job for a few hours or for a few days then they get reprogrammed. They get a lot done with no help in between. They save hundreds of man hours per month.

 

[redforlife]

When I was at the custom wood door
place, they got a computerized machine
to do all the machining to a completed
door, while I was there. Size and trim
the edge, router the hinge pockets,
bore the door knob holes, all that
jazz. Was basically fed a blank door,
and it done all the machining.
If it was to run, say 20 doors for one
work order, it could do an individual
door in a percentage of the time it'd
take a person to do it.
But this machine had to be run by a
person, even though it did its own
thing after pressing the green light
button. Blank doors had to be set on
and off the machine. The correct
computer program to be used, would
have to be retrieved from its files,
per work order. Along with changing
out any tooling changes the job
required, before start of a run.
But the big thing was, the computer
programming. Being a CUSTOM door
place, each work order required
programming. Sometimes an identical
work order would be on file, but was
easier to create a new one, rather
than look for the correct one through
hundreds of files saved in memory.
Bottom line, this one machine required
a full time programmer, and also
somebody to run the machine, even
though it was doing the work itself.
Did it do more work than these 2
people could of done without it?? YES.
Did it eliminate a job? No. Not as a
single machine. If a half of dozen of
the same machines were being used,
programmed by the same person, and
only took 3 people on the floor to
keep them going, it would of
eliminated jobs.

I'm invisioning these driver-less
tractors to be more like the door
machine I just described. Equipment
changes being the same as tooling
changes. New field/different task
being the same as new work order
(computer programming), The list goes
on.

Computers though smart, are not like
the human mind. You can't simply tell
them, ... You remember that field
where you had the flat tire 2 years
ago, and you ruined the rim? I want
you to go down there and cultivate it,
and then come back home and get the
planter, and go back down there and
plant corn. Not the whole thing. I
want to plant the north half of it to
soybeans this year. There is NO
driverless tractor that can do that,
without a LOT of help.

 

[ss55]

Think about where farming is headed in the near future. Currently the average age of farmers is near or over sixty, how many of those will still be farming in 5, 10, 15 , 20 years. Most all will retire by their own choice. Who/what will the next farmers be? If the house is modern and in good condition the farmstead may stay in the family or be sold as an acreage, the bare farm ground will likely be sold off to a larger farm. If the house is poof often the whole farmstead is bulldozed by the new owner to eliminate the problems of vacant buildings. What type of equipment will be needed in the future as rural populations continue to shrink and experienced farm labor cannot be hired at any price (outside of immigrant labor)?

 

[ss55]

Convince Americans to spend twice as much for food and small farms will come back to America.

Profits always attracts competitors. Increasing the price of food would just makes it all that more attractive for larger farms with real economy of scale to justify big investments and attract investors to fund them. Well healed small farmers could still afford to farm for entertainment, but the others won't be able to make a living, much less pay off any mortgages on high priced farmland. With today's high farm commodity prices I suspect we have already reached that point.

 

[ss55]

Big farms are going to have the funds to have full time programmer on staff. Smaller farms have always been limited to the abilities of one man.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 11:10:39 03/24/22) Everything is 240v in Europe so it charges faster he he....

240 single phase and 416 three phase .
How long will that electric Deere operate at 75% load. 1-2 hours at the most .

This post was edited by buickanddeere on 03/26/2022 at 01:34 pm.

 

[redforlife]

Well, that whole thing about the average farmer being over the age of 60. That is true enough. But is what I am seeing, (in my area), this is referring to independent farmers. And corporate farming (which is taking hold in my area already) is not factored into the equation. The owners of the corporations might well enough be over 62, but thier entire work forces (which are large) are all under 62. Of all ages under 62 actually. These employees on hourly or salory wages, turning in W-2s at the end of the year, must not be tallied as farmers in the government's eyes. I'm guessing any surveys conducted, or government reports are based off of property owners (taxes), information collected by FSA offices (also from property owners), or from the IRS on income taxes. The owner of a corporate farm is probably labeled by the IRS as being a farmer. I'm guessing an employee of a corporate farm, is labeled by the IRS simply as a worker of a corporation, and not a farmer.
Statistics, therefore, would be deceiving.

What your saying about farmsteads/farm houses is already happening in my area.

The future of farming will be more and more corporate as years go by. It's already started. I'm not sure it'll ever be 100 percent. Guessing there will always be some weekend, or hobby farming going on. Or farming for a past time for rich retired people. Stuff like that.