ALL ABOUT TRACTORS

BY PAUL WALLEM

 Since starting this column over a year ago, I’ve concentrated on tractor history from the very

first designs of the early 1900s up to the years prior to precision farming. 

A new world opened to agriculture in 1994 when GPS (Global Positioning System) came into our lives. That opened the door for precision farming, also known as precision agriculture.

Lori Bedord, former Ag Technology Editor at Successful Farming Magazine published a 2019

article describing the historical changes in agriculture. She broke down the historical segments as follows:

Mechanization 1831

Ag Chemistry 1945

Precision Farming 1994

Digital Ag 2015

Precision farming merges new technology of the information age within a mature agricultural industry. It is often described as “GPS Agriculture.”

Then another step forward brought about digital agriculture in 2015. Some call that “smart farming” or “e-agriculture.” This is the tool that digitally collects, stores, analyzes and shares electronic data information in agriculture.

These systems had to be developed before programmable planters, sprayers, electric and driverless tractors and combines could be perfected. Now these are all in use.

Today’s 29 year-old farmer has never lived without GPS. To him or her a world without GPS and smart phones would be hard to comprehend. 

Autonomous (driverless) tractors are a great example of e-agriculture. Regarding electric tractors, the current market in the US is valued at $221 million. 

Some industry analysts currently rank the following manufacturers as showing the most progress in electric tractor development. These are ranked alphabetically:

CNH, Fendt, John Deere, Kubota, Monarch, Solectrac. 

Of the these six, one is now being produced in the Farm World circulation area. Monarch is coming off the line at the Foxconn plant in Lordstown, Ohio, a former GM factory. The Business Journal based in Youngstown, Ohio visited the plant recently, and Editor Andrea Wood gave

permission to quote from the article; 

“Monarch executives reported they started shipping tractors in March, and will produce over 1000 tractors this year. Their MK-V model is all-electric and driver-optional. They emphasized that a farmer can “train” the vehicle to operate automatically and follow the precise path an operator would.”

There are also other brands that have started production of all-electric tractors. I’ll report on

them in future columns. Companies outside the US showing significant progress in this market include Mahindra and Sonalika (India) and Xinhua in China. 

The largest market for electric/driverless tractors is where labor shortages occur. Vineyards and orchards in California are rapidly switching over. One operator can operate 5 tractors successfully. The California market in particular has developed Spanish software in addition to English, for the operators. 

The dairy industry has become a major market, again due to labor shortage. Large milking operations as well as hay operations lend themselves well to driverless tractor operation.

A large growth potential for electric tractors is developing on hobby farms across the US, where quiet operation and low maintenance costs are appealing. 

As with cars and trucks, re-charging is a major issue. However, smaller horsepower tractors typically work in a restricted area. Swapping out batteries or use of a charging trailer works well and is convenient. This is not the case for larger horsepower tractors that work in a larger area, some miles apart, and require far more battery capacity. For these reasons the small horsepower tractors are selling much better. 

The large HP tractors require much longer re-charging times. A larger operator can own extra

battery packs and swap often, but that takes away a large part of the electric advantage. Diesel power continues to have the advantage, and probably will for some time.

Farm Equipment magazine interviewed Tim Sherstyuk, Chief Commercial Officer for G-Batteries in Ottawa, Canada. The full interview can be seen on www.farm-equipment.com,

and we have their permission to quote from it.

“We don’t make batteries and we don’t make chargers”, he explained. He emphasized that his technology is a mixture of hardware and software that falls in between the two.

“It allows us to monitor what is taking place inside Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries as they charge, and adjust the charge to allow faster charges without damaging the battery.”

This company and others worldwide are working on developments to shorten re-charging times. Even though small HP tractors have less of a re-charging problem, they will benefit

from these efforts along with the larger tractors.

An unrelated event occurred in Woodstock, Illinois on August 2 that deserves space here. The Hansen Pavilion on McHenry County Fairgrounds in Illinois was named after Orion Samuelson, my oldest and best friend. After sixty years on WGN Chicago, the “Voice of Agriculture” retired. Also often referred to as the Dean of Agriculture, the University of Illinois earlier awarded him an honorary PHD for his lifetime efforts to promote agriculture.

Paul Wallem was raised on an Illinois dairy farm. He was active in 4H and FFA, and spent thirteen years with corporate IH in domestic and foreign assignments. He resigned to own and operate two IH dealerships. He is the author of THE BREAKUP of IH and SUCCESSES AND INDUSTRY FIRSTS of IH. See all his books on www.PaulWallem.com. Send comments to 

pwallem@aol.com