In the fall of 2016, Case IH and New Holland both introduced driverless tractors at Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, and at Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island, Neb.

There was much talk and fanfare about the arrival of these concept vehicles, and the implications of their development to the agriculture industry. Six years later, with even more manufacturers such as John Deere, Fendt and Autonomous Tractor Corp. joining the group of manufacturers working on autonomy, GPS guidance and wireless technology continue to be crucial in development.

But the concept of a tractor “driving” itself has been around for a long time, decades before GPS and wireless.

Marcus Cain, the Dawes County, Neb., farmer who invented a tiller-packer-drill machine and a tank retriever tractor, also toyed with the idea of autonomy in farm equipment. It is said that the cupola in Cain’s house on his farmstead south of Chadron, which looks much like a tower for an air traffic controller, was built so he could remotely control his tractors and farm equipment.

Inventing and farming in Dawes County from the 1920s through the 1960s, Cain never figured out the technology to make it come to fruition, but he certainly thought about it and worked on the concepts.

In 1940, Frank W. Andrew invented a driverless tractor system that was comprised of a barrel or fixed wheel in the center of the field, and it would wind a cable that was attached to the steering arm of the front of the tractor.

But two decades before Andrew came up with his design, a 20-year-old Nebraskan, whose father owned a blacksmith shop, developed and patented an automatic tractor guide that would lead a steel-wheeled tractor in concentric circles around a field.

Zybach’s first patent

That young inventor was none other than Frank Zybach, the man known today as the father of the center pivot. It is said that Zybach came up with the idea of hands-off tractor driving when he was plowing a field.

As he prepared to plant his crop, it occurred to him that plants grew just as well in crooked rows as straight ones. He decided to plow his field in circles. Like Andrew, Zybach began in the middle of the field, plowed a tight spiral, and then got the front wheel of the tractor down in the furrow and let go of the steering wheel.

The tractor would continue plowing those circles in larger and larger spirals until it ran out of fuel or the wheel came out of the furrow. That’s why he patented the automatic tractor wheel guide to keep the wheel of the tractor going in concentric circles around the field.

There was something about circles that clicked with Zybach, and he eventually figured out a way to irrigate in circles with an invention we know today as the center pivot.

Cain, Zybach and Andrew were all ahead of their time. GPS and wireless tech weren’t around during their days of inventing, but engineers of today must tip their hats to those early pioneers of the concept of autonomy and tractors.