Ag In Motion attendees experience driverless tractor

Jul 21, 2017

Norbert Beaujot is taking his invention to Germany for AGRITECHNICA

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

Seeing tractors drive around the grounds of Saskatchewan’s Ag in Motion isn’t a new experience. But witnessing a tractor perform all of its normal duties without an operator in the cab is new.

“Farmers were here from North Battleford…and they said, ‘You’re starting a revolution,’” Norbert Beaujot, founder of DOT Technology Corp., told CBC on July 19. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

One producer used a remote control to steer the tractor from the comfort of a chair under an umbrella.

Beaujot, a farmer and engineer, founded SeedMaster, a manufacturer of seeding equipment in 1991.

And despite SeedMaster’s success, it’s still the unknown that excites the 69-year-old.

“In a way, everything I’ve done in my life has led up to this because of my background and knowledge,” he told CBC. “I semi-retired a few years ago. When I came up with this concept, I figured I gotta do it.”

The possibility of a driverless tractor has some farmers scratching their heads.

“It’s exciting and scary,” Ivan Bartel, a producer with a 5,000 acre farm near Drake, Sask., told CBC. “I’m used to going out in the field.”

The next generation of farmers, like Bartel’s 28-year-old son, may put this type of machinery to better use, he said.

Some driverless tractors could pop up in some Saskatchewan fields next year, Beaujot told CBC.

The next stop for him and his driverless tractor is AGRITECHNICA in Germany this November.

Beaujot isn't the first to introduce the farming community to driverless tractors.

Case IH unveiled autonomous tractors at the 2016 Farm Progress Show in Iowa.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.