This is the future

[Clive]

These things are being developed to make money for the company investing so they'll be no different than companies developing GMO's. You'll pay for the tech and the ability to operate it and doubt wont be allowed to fix it.
Don't pay your monthly fee on time or agree to the price rise, well they'll just 'switch them off' just when you need them.
At least with a seed, once its in the ground you're pretty safe.
You already have low labour and machinery costs, do you think robots will reduce that further?
Once everyone is using it, prices for your produce will adjust to compensate for any COP advantage (if there is one) because as farmers you're competing against each other.

Robot tech won‘t belong to one provider, just like the tractors they replace it will be a competitive market

the trouble with GM etc is single big companies end up in exclusive control of the IP

 

[glasshouse]

I just saw this pic on facebook and it sent a cold shiver down my spine. The seat on one of them is half the reason I ache and the zigzag gearchange why my wrist aches.
I spent most of my days on the end of a cabbage knife, a hoe or on my hands and knees. Cabless tractor? pfftt! I was 55 before I found out hairs grow on my knees.

View attachment 885359

Those cabs were terrible, but a big improvement on cabless

 

[glasshouse]

I have no doubt that driverless tractors will take off in prairie farming.
In the crowded uk , full of dog walkers , small fields , obstacles etc, it will be a minefield.
Driverless cars will never take off due to legal issues

 

[Farmer Roy]

It’s not just a small Australian farming family who are playing around with this.
Yes, JD & Case have their driverless tractors, but they haven’t really come up with anything new or exciting, still just using their existing platforms.
The Canadians were doing something interesting with DOT, obviously Raven thought it was worthwhile because they have bought them out & are developing it further

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Hahaha

View attachment 885429

"it'll never catch on"

 

[Farmer Roy]

“The tractor will never replace the horse”

 

[fred.950]

Theres probably not that many on here now who started out on a cabless tractor, but that gave an understanding of the soil that you dont get sitting Miles up in a luxury cab .
I often see younger tractor drivers happily going up and down, on their phones making an absolute howk

I still duck when I go under trees, and never put my thumbs on the inside of the steering wheel!
Some things you never forget!

 

[Farmer Roy]

Haha - I always duck under trees regardless of what I’m driving

 

[Kidds]

View attachment 885431

I know how to drive them too

 

[glasshouse]

When i was a kid my job was to harrow yhe fields on an international 434 with cage wheels and no cab, seat sat directly on top of transmission, with a set of 15ft harrows you had to fold manually.
It was cold, dusty work but i loved it
I learned a lot about how to make a seedbed doing that.
I look back and think did i really work in those conditions?
I suppose my kids will look back and say did i really sit in that aircon cab for not that many hours when i could have been trading bitcoin or watching a movie?

 

[glasshouse]

I know how to drive them too

After trump destroys the world you will be needed

 

[kiwi pom]

“The tractor will never replace the horse”

I'm all for new technology but don't always see the point of using it for the sake of it.
The driverless stuff is available now, its just that the driver hasn't been removed because its easier to have someone there to deal with problems as they arise, sort logistics, move paddocks etc. Then there's the safety side of having equipment driving or flying round by itself near the public.
Problems that can be sorted but it may just be cheaper to keep them semi autonomous and have a ten quid an hour "driver" to keep an eye on things.
Sometimes simpler is better.

 

[glasshouse]

I'm all for new technology but don't always see the point of using it for the sake of it.
The driverless stuff is available now, its just that the driver hasn't been removed because its easier to have someone there to deal with problems as they arise, sort logistics, move paddocks etc. Then there's the safety side of having equipment driving or flying round by itself near the public.
Problems that can be sorted but it may just be cheaper to keep them semi autonomous and have a ten quid an hour "driver" to keep an eye on things.
Sometimes simpler is better.

Someone still has to grease it and fill with fuel
I lnow a lot of drivers omit these details!!

 

[steveR]

I'm all for new technology but don't always see the point of using it for the sake of it.

Problems that can be sorted but it may just be cheaper to keep them semi autonomous and have a ten quid an hour "driver" to keep an eye on things.

Bit like commercial airliners!

 

[Red Fred]

Then there's the safety side of having equipment driving or flying round by itself near the public.

Shirley this will be the biggest problem in the crowded UK. Some areas near towns are becoming no go areas for farming due to the activities of feral youths getting up to "boyhood pranks", but if they discover that there are 200hp robots crawling round the fields unattended (or swarms of little 10hp robots), they will be all over them sticking things in the air intakes, spraying over the sensors and setting them on fire. As soon as one gets squashed, mum will be straight on the news telling us how little Shane would never hurt a soul and it isn't about the compensation.
Then there are our other friends who seem to extract tractors from locked compounds with ease and will soon have the measure of the robots' security.

 

[Robt]

Someone still has to grease it and fill with fuel
I lnow a lot of drivers omit these details!!

They will have their own '' docking stations'' so dont worry.

 

[Bossfarmer]

with the price of cereals and margins involved dont expect to see many robots around the uk fields anytime soon most farmers that sit on their own tractor dont cost their time anyway myself and brother keep the drill going 24hrs when needed at a cash cost of 0 for labour its only a week or so of the year what do we reckon one of these robot tractors will cost? id imagine around 500k min, mabye see them for for veg and fruit though