Straddle Tractor Concept
Straddle Tractor Concept, is specifically designed to meet the requirements of the narrow vineyards with grapes grown in rows less than one and a half meters wide, often on steep slopes and on small vineyards.
Welcome once more to Orchard & Vine’s annual tractor issue!
Every year we survey our readers on what they’re looking for when shopping for the single most important tool on the farm, and we look at the latest technology trends.
This year, we’re seeing major developments in the areas of autonomous tractors, more sustainable options to reduce environmental impacts, and also legislation that ensures farmers can repair their own equipment.
In our specific sector for orchards and vineyards, there are also shifts to smaller tractors that punch above their weight class, such as the KIOTI CK2610, according to Dylan Wiebe, sales manager for the North Vernon dealer Timberstar.
“The biggest feature we see people moving to KIOTI for is the strength of the front end loader, our CK2610,” said Timberstar. “At only 25hp, it has enough front end loader strength to stack heaped apple bins. When it’s upgraded to the 40hp engine it also makes a great spraying machine. Orchard owners are finding they can do more with less when they switch to KIOTI. With the economic slowdown looming on the horizon, the great price points and capabilities of the KIOTI compact line make it a really attractive option.”
John Deere has once again been recognized at the Consumer Electronics Show for its advances in farming technology.
The tractor manufacturer was honored at CES in 2022 when it unveiled its fully autonomous, self-driving tractor. This year, John Deere announced the release of an electric-powered excavator and a robotic fertilizer systems.
Those two releases saw John Deere win the 2023 award for the Best of Innovation in Robotics at CES 2023, which is the world’s largest tradeshow.
John Deere CEO John May was also a keynote speaker at CES, and drew accolades as he explained why innovation in farming is so important to the planet and everyone who lives on it.
“Why should you care about farmers when they represent less than two percent of the U.S. population?” May asked rhetorically. “You will not find two industries that have a larger impact on our world and all of us than agriculture and construction.”
John Deere’s new ExactShot uses sensors and robotics to place fertilizer precisely where the seeds need them, instead of dropping a continuous flow of fertilizer all over the row of seeds. John Deere says it will reduce the amount of starter fertilizer needed by more than 60 percent — that’s over 93 million gallons of starter fertilizer annually.
“ExactShot uses a sensor to register when each individual seed is in the process of going into the soil,” the company wrote in a press release. “As this occurs, a robot will spray only the amount of fertilizer needed, about 0.2 milliliters, directly onto the seed at the exact moment as it goes into the ground.”
Another innovation from the tractor company is its see and spray technology, which uses 36 cameras on a massive 120-foot-long machine to pinpoint the difference between weeds and plants. The system can kill the weeds without hurting the crops, which also reduces the amount of herbicide farmers need by up to 66 percent.
Wiebe also says the overall market for tractors is changing, largely due to inflation and the global economic slowdown.
“For trends in tractor purchases, we are seeing the overall market shrink slightly,” Wiebe says. “However, in North America KIOTI continues to gain market share faster than the market is shrinking, so we continue to see record breaking tractor purchases despite a slow down.”
The other major changes we’re seeing this year is in the type of machinery farmers are buying. Increasingly, more farmers are looking for more technologically advanced machines that increase productivity and lower costs.
A good example of that is in the area of automation with manufacturers like John Deere introducing both automated tractors and robotic accessories to improve efficiencies in both fertilizing and spraying crops.
Another example is the third-party company Sabanto, which just announced a new “autonomy retrofit kit” for Kubota’s line of M5 tractors, which are popular with orchardists and vineyard managers. While John Deere is focused on bigger tractors for its automation drive, Sabanto sees a market for small tractors that are less expensive to buy and operate, and that reduce compaction in the field.
“We are completely disrupting the way the industry views autonomous equipment, and we are bringing in partners who share our vision,” says Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto. “We see a future of smaller, smarter, lighter, less expensive, and more sustainable swarms of autonomous equipment that will enable users to cover more ground with less.”
Kubota itself is about to become the first Japanese manufacturer to release an electric-powered tractor. In April this year, Kubota will make its first wave of the new LXe261 electric tractor available for rental service in various regions across Europe, which is currently drafting tough laws to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture and landscaping. The initial run of tractors is primarily aimed toward cities that use the small tractors for park maintenance and green space management.
Kubota is also working with Tesla co-founder Ian Wright on a line of farming robots specifically for vineyards. These robots will move through vineyards autonomously, trimming branches and eventually handling the harvesting as well.
Another development that caught our eye was an entirely new type of tractor called The Straddle Tractor Concept from New Holland. The futuristic Straddle Tractor is designed to tackle the demanding constraints posed by narrow vineyards even on steep slopes, and is built to be ready for electric traction.
The design is so novel, it just won the gold medal for Excellent Product Design at the German Design Awards 2023; more proof that while other sectors might get the headlines, agriculture is leading the way in sustainable innovation.
