About 50 Wisconsin farmers and 20 agribusiness people attended the first public showcase in North America of Raven’s OmniDrive Autonomous Harvest Application with New Holland equipment. The event was hosted on Oct. 25 by New Holland and Swiderski Equipment at Bob Biadasz Farms in Amherst, Wis., near Stevens Point.

Attendees watched as an NHCR8.90 Class A combine with an eight-row corn head combined corn and unloaded on the go into a grain cart pulled by a driverless New Holland tractor outfitted with Raven’s OmniDrive autonomous software.  

When the grain bin on the combine was 40% full, the combine operator pressed a button that called the tractor and grain cart from their staging area in the field to run alongside the combine while it onloaded the corn into the grain cart on the go. After the combine finished unloading, the autonomous tractor and grain cart staged themselves nearby in the field until the combine operator called them again to unload more corn.

“Instead of a team of three with one person in the cab of the tractor, one in the cab of the combine and one in the cab of a semitruck, we can have two people, which lowers the labor burden,” explained Ben Sheldon, who works with precision agriculture for New Holland.

Seeing it up close

Farmers at the Wisconsin event were encouraged to ride in the combine and watch up close how the autonomous technology on the tractor pulling the grain cart works. Farmers were also able to watch TV monitors in a trailer in the field that provided live video of what was happening on the tractor and the combine.

Bob Biadasz, who hosted the event at his farm, was the first farmer to ride in the combine. He said he found the technology interesting.

“I have the same combine,” he said. “It was easy for me to visualize using this technology.”

Biadasz, 70, has been farming on the farm where he grew up since he graduated from high school in 1970.

“I’ve seen a lot of change in my farming career,” he noted. “This is one of the most interesting things I’ve seen.”

In 1970, he farmed 120 acres. Today, Biadasz said he farms 1,250 owned and rented acres. He also custom-harvests 2,000 acres of corn silage; chops three to four crops of haylage on about 2,500 acres; plants 1,500 acres of corn; and combines 800 acres of corn for area farmers.

Mosinee, Wis., farmer Dan Cihlar also rode in the combine and watched as it unloaded corn on the go into the grain cart pulled by the driverless tractor.

“It’s amazing but not surprising,” Cihlar said. “This is the future for agriculture — being able to do more with less labor. It’s not the cost of labor but the availability.”

The 40-year-old central Wisconsin farmer said it’s all about efficiency.

“Farmers are doing more with less,” Cihlar said. “It helps us streamline our operations.”

Cihlar has been farming for 20 years and operates 1,400 owned and rented acres.

“With this system, I can see how you can take an operator out of the tractor and grain cart and put them in a second combine,” he said.

Cihlar said within 10 years, he can see himself using autonomous technology on his farm.

“The biggest asset for me would be the fertilizer application and spraying,” he explained. “I think Raven is on the right track. Then you get the use out of it year-round.”

New Holland and Raven have not said when the technology will be available for farmers to purchase or how much it will cost.