Although born and raised on a farm in Cherokee, Iowa, Craig Rupp started his career as an electrical engineer in the cellular phone business for Motorola. In this position he worked on wireless applications and electronics. Each time Craig met with farmers, they all talked about how bad the labor problem was. He was convinced that they should be using more electronics to ease their farming operations and use autonomous solutions.
“Eventually, I founded Sabanto,” says Craig. “That’s a somewhat weird name. It’s Japanese for servant, a short and powerful name, not based on ag related things like many other companies have in their names. The name Sabanto is easy to remember and easy to find on Google. I had no idea where it was going. Yet, I wanted to disrupt the industry. But that was quite a challenge.”
In 2019 Craig created the first prototype autonomous tractor working in the field, planting soybeans and corn. It operated on a 220 hp JCB 4220, including a 40-inch planter with Precision Planting technology on it.
“I started asking farmers to let me plant their acres,” he continues. “They cooperated, wanting to see and have their fields autonomously planted. But of course, nothing always goes well, not this pilot either. I worked a lot and 2019 was a very wet season. On the one hand it helped because I was trying to get things running in between rainfall, trying to fix and improve things.
"But it was hard. Imagine, I was the CEO, the truck driver, the mechanic. Literally everything. I went to Nebraska, Minnesota and Indiana and slept in the truck. I funded everything by myself. But I just wanted to go out and see what happened. This helped a lot and Sabanto took off! Today we have a staff of 40 people and we’re moving in the right direction.”
Retrofit Kit
“The name of our product is 'Steward.' It’s a platform that includes the retrofit kit that we attach to tractors. We install it on the farmers’ tractor and don’t supply to OEM’s. John Deere, AGCO, CNH, you name them. They all have the resources and are very well able to develop their own systems.
"My aim was to create a system that attaches to the farmer’s tractor that they already have in their machine shed. It is not like the automated grain cart AGCO recently presented during their Tech Days. Our autonomous retrofit kit is not well suited for that, we don’t have the ability to perform a grain cart operation.
"You have to really focus on the field operation. We are focused on the row crop, going back and forth, pulling an implement behind the tractor on a 24/7 basis. Farmers right now are running about 18 hrs. a day with the system. That’s quite something. Apart from the autonomous solution, it’s still possible to operate the tractor with a driver. You can turn back to operate manually. We want to make sure that tractors can be used manually. “
Change Management
“The biggest obstacle we encounter with our product is what we call “change management,” Craig continues. “Can you imagine that you must adapt to this technology? It’s a night and day operation when the tractor is running autonomously. You have to implement that into your farm management operation. There are a couple of things you have to deal with, such as with tracks in the field, but also with trees and other obstacles. We have a perception system that detects anything that’s out in the field. Yet, autonomy greatly helps. All the time you save is night and day.
"Legislation is also something we’ve got to deal with. The only thing I know so far in the US is that in California, you’re not allowed to have people working out in the field while operating an autonomous vehicle. And autonomous operation for road transport is not allowed either. We will of course obey and respond to such legislation.
"And so, we’re keeping busy. We have a network of dedicated dealers throughout the US and Canada to support our product. We cover the entire United States from California to New York, with each dealer covering about three to four states, but of course mainly in the grain belt.
"We do get inquiries from overseas markets like Australia and Europe, particularly from Ireland. And yes, we do see chances there. The interesting thing is, we’re working on a smaller platform. In Ireland, the ground is very marshy, and the fields are small. Our Steward system would work well there.
"Currently, we focus on the US and Canada, rather than the export market. There’s still much work to do. I do see the US moving towards farming methods from Europe. In this context, our Steward autonomous retrofit kit fits well with these methods.
"We have over 100 units running out in the field now. Like I said earlier, I wanted to disrupt the industry. I think we did, and we will keep doing so!”
