"The value of this data only grows with each field’s planting rotation, as there are even more opportunities to compare conditions, crops and other variables to find the optimal combinations.," says Maria Zepeda Gomez.

The lightweight, electric-powered, autonomous planter no-tilled soybeans and strip-tilled corn in Webster County, Iowa.

Adam Gittins, president and general manager of 2024 MVD HTS Ag, Jason Leary, ag technology manager for 2019 MVD Crystal Valley, and Scott Staum, regional advanced cropping system specialist for 2018 MVD Central Valley, detail the processes and practices that make their businesses successful.

As startups and major OEMs alike strive to innovate and scale, the roadmap laid out by Elon Musk for rocket engineering offers some insightful guidelines, particularly for those venturing into autonomous farm machinery.

Rootwave’s approach appealed to Jorge Heraud because of the way the company uses electricity. “I was looking for alternative ways of killing weeds, given that chemistry is not going to work forever,” he says.

Australian company SwarmFarm Robotics made its first commercial delivery of the autonomous SwarmBot in the U.S. to Beck's Hybrids in Atlanta, Ind.

“Full on autonomous machinery, not so much, but partial autonomy will play a big role over the next 2 years.”

Precision dealers from across the U.S. and Canada identified their top challenges and also shared how they plan to address them in 2024.