Guest article: Farmers aren’t buying today’s ag robotics model. You shouldn’t either

Tim Bucher is the cofounder and CEO of Agtonomy, a California-based, software, services and technology company enabling autonomy in agriculture. Bucher purchased his own land at 16 to establish Trattore Farms. Simultaneously, he pursued a career in computer science in Silicon Valley, working directly with luminaries like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews.

There’s good, bad and ugly news where ag robotics are concerned.

The good news is that the Robotics, Mechanization and Equipment category held steady with $399 million raised in new VC investments in H1 2024, according to preliminary data from AgFunder. [Disclosure: AgFunder is AgFunderNews’ parent company.]

The bad news in H1 was a 12.5% decline in capital raised from the first half of 2023 (although the number is in line with the overall downward investment trend impacting all tech investments).

Now let’s talk about the ugly. Though amazing innovation is happening, even if investments double, triple or even quadruple, it won’t be enough to scale ag robotics and farm autonomy at the pace agriculture needs.

Why? Because farm automation faces a trust and manufacturing barrier that investment money alone cannot overcome.

Farmers love tractors

Ask anybody that knows me, I absolutely love tractors. I have a historic tractor museum and the name of my farming operations, “Trattore,” is the Italian word for “tractor.” If there was ever a computer engineer/farmer that dreamed of building an autonomous tractor manufacturing company, it’s me.

But when I cofounded Agtonomy, focused on developing advanced autonomous software solutions for tractors and implements, I couldn’t help but listen to my farmer sensibility. Would I, as a farmer, trust a piece of equipment from a company called “Agtonomy?” I wouldn’t. Like most farmers, I don’t buy equipment from unknown brands.

Yet according to a new Rabobank report on the state of autonomy in agricultural equipment, “87% of commercialized agricultural robots are owned by their developers (startups and scaleups).” Translation: Most autonomous solutions available to farmers right now are from startups farmers have never heard of, nor trust. And what machines they do have are available only in very limited numbers.

While I’m incredibly proud of Agtonomy’s computer engineering and robotics team and the ground-breaking software and technological platform we have built, I’m realistic.

Farmers don’t have the time to waste on agtech startups to manufacture machines that take years to deliver and have yet to earn grower’s trust. A more common-sense approach would be to partner directly with established OEMs and IEMs (integrated equipment manufacturers). These collaborations leverage trusted brands and existing dealer networks, ensuring farmers receive reliable, autonomous solutions that seamlessly integrate into their operations and drive profitability.

The window of opportunity for ag robotics is now

Consider this: in Sonoma County, where I have operated Trattore Farms and Winery for 25 years, labor costs in the grape and olive industry have increased an average of 43% since 2017. Mine went up by 47%. Meanwhile the prices for my wine, grapes and olive oil only increased by about 5%.

The cost of labor is killing farmers, and that’s not counting increased input costs, climate change impacts and pressures, regulatory changes decreasing workers hours before overtime pay, inflation and consumer resistance to price increases. With farmers receiving a mere 14.5 cents for every food dollar spent in 2023 —the lowest in three decades— the urgency for change is real.

Contrary to common belief, the barriers to technology adoption is not farmers’ hesitancy, but rather startups’ inability to provide reliable solutions. Case in point, a Western Growers survey found that 70% of growers had invested in automation in 2022, spending an average of $450,000 to $500,000, roughly 25% spending increase over 2021. According to a 2023 Farm Journal survey, nearly 60% of farmers seek new agricultural products and technologies that are reliable and meet their needs, desiring reassurance that these innovations will work as advertised.

At Agtonomy, we’ve experienced farmer’s desire to adopt technology firsthand. In 2023, we initiated a pilot program to validate our technology on working farms. The immediate response was overwhelmingly positive: growers not only eagerly participated but were willing to pay for the opportunity.

Had we been trying to go it alone, Agtonomy simply wouldn’t be able to manufacture the machines farmers are demanding now for the real work, real solutions they need to survive.

The collaborative approach makes sense

With today’s on-farm automation, agricultural robotic startups are the “AI Factory.” OEMs and IEMs are the “Iron Factory.” Yet neither can win the autonomy race alone. Most certainly, farmers won’t. But we can all win when we successfully meld the two together where one plus one equals three.

The impact of a startup putting 100, maybe 200 units into the field is minimal. — not even a drop in the bucket of what global agriculture needs. But that’s exactly what OEMs and IEMs do. They have the manufacturing capacity plus the dealer network and service center to make sure every machine works in the field, every day.

On the other hand, OEMs and IEMs are not tech experts. Startups are the AI and autonomy experts manufacturers need to digitize their machines. Whether it’s through an acquisition model, as we’ve seen with John Deere, or a partnership strategy like the Agtonomy-enabled Doosan Bobcat AT450X, the value agricultural robotic startups bring is our computer engineering expertise, not our procurement and manufacturing capabilities.

The challenge we face is existential, but, individually, we can’t deliver at the pace and scale needed. Instead, let’s break the model and collaborate with speed, precision and purpose.

For autonomy to bring value to agriculture today, we must think about tractors and farm tools like farmers do. But we must do so collaboratively with the brands farmers already know and trust. This is how the entire industry can move together, faster, at the pace farmers need.

Speaking on behalf of farmers, we want on-farm robotics now. Speaking on behalf of startups, we can’t — and shouldn’t — go it alone.