Farming was once the dominant vocation in the US, but the development of increasingly large-scale and sophisticated equipment has allowed all but a tiny percent of our population to pursue other career opportunities (see USDA summary). Innovation continues in the farm equipment industry, but now it is more focused on enabling that remaining work force to do their work with greater precision, with more time and attention devoted to highly skilled activities and less time on the tedious and otherwise undesirable elements of the job.
For instance, more and more equipment has “auto-steer” capability so that the operator’s attention can be on much more than the back-and-forth driving. There are “geo-referenced” controls on equipment like planters, fertilizer injectors and sprayers that allow precision, variable-rate, or variable seeding in different parts of each field based on data such as yield maps or from aerial/satellite imaging. The on-going innovation in this space includes more and more examples of automation and the employment of AI.
One encouraging aspect of this trend is that the “technification” of farming makes it more attractive to a younger generation so that more members of farming families or others who still live in rural areas will choose agriculture as a career. Another question to consider is to what extent automation, robotics and AI could replace some of the most labor intensive farming tasks and which of those tasks will still depend on having a truly functional “guest worker” program.
This article is based on interviews with three companies that are developing automated and/or AI-based equipment for use on farms and is intended to give a snapshot of the current activity in this space.
Sabanto
Sabanto is a company that has been working on ways to retro-fit existing and widely owned tractors (e.g. the John Deere 5100E) so that their activities can be driven using AI Initially this has increased precision and provided automation for mowing, spraying and tillage passes.
CEO Craig Rupp described one interesting example of what this technology can enable. These updated tractors don’t require a conventional driver because they can be controlled by “Virtual Field Operators” who can be in a comfortable, indoor setting even far away from the field in question. There is a grandmother in Ames, Iowa, who can tend as many as 17 of these tractors operating on farms across Florida and Georgia.
This sort of technology can effectively create a new category of farm employees in the virtual operator role, and that would be a perfect fit for the many kids who grew up playing an on-line game called Farming Simulator and/or those who participated in FFA (Future Farmers of America) in which they learn about farming economics.
Farmblox
There is another company called Farmblox which began by trying to develop robots for indoor, “vertical farms.”
Three years ago, after becoming convinced that Vertical Farming is was an excessively energy demanding sector, Co-Founder and CEO Nathan Rosenberg explained that they shifted towards technologies for irrigation control, weather monitoring stations and specific tasks in certain specialty crops. For instance, the Maple Syrup industry involves 8 million tapped trees and generates $4 billion in revenue.
One of the issues they are addressing for that industry is remote monitoring for leaks – something that used to take up a great deal of time. They have also developed remote irrigation system controls and pest monitoring functions.
These developments are mainly having benefits in terms of augmenting the existing labor force rather than trying to reduce the head count. The syrup industry is one of many that depend to some degree on immigrant labor through the H1-B program because of the seasonal nature of the work.
Yamaha Agriculture Inc
The third example is a company called Yamaha Agriculture, Inc. It was launched on February 24th, 2025, and is led by Nolan Paul who joined Yamaha’s internal venture unit in 2018.
This new unit was formed through acquisition of a robotic vehicle company based in New Zealand called Robotics Plus and an AI start-up named The Yield which helps the grower to reduce input costs and otherwise optimize resource use. Robotics Plus has developed an electrified, hybrid vehicle called a “Prospr” that can navigate a pre-mapped orchard or vineyard with row spacings as narrow as 6-8 feet and with slopes of up to 20%.
These are another example of a remote worker role and in this case such operators are mainly overseeing as many as 4 Prosprs at a time, and by adding shifts these vehicles can be operating around the clock – particularly during the peak season for their use in spraying, weeding, mowing etc. Because all of the site mapping and intercommunication a team of Prospr units and operators can coordinate with “nurse vehicles” that carry their supplies and with the trailer trucks that might be needed to transport them from site to site. Prospr is based on a modular design and has the potential to integrate with any existing implement. However, the more technically difficult activities such as pruning and hand harvesting still require the kind of highly skilled labor that is too difficult to automate.
Automation and AI will definitely continue to enhance the productivity of the remaining farming workforce, but it will not eliminate the need for people fill a wide variety of roles – some highly technical, some involving considerable physical effort, and all requiring skill. Realistically a significant amount of that labor will need to be conducted by seasonal or longer-term immigrant/guest laborers and they should be treated with respect and appreciation.
