The first question tackled in this roundtable discussion was “What is autonomy?” Initially the group would have thought of driverless tractors completing tasks in the fields without an operator in the field.

The “precision placement of chemicals” and “consistent application within a targeted coverage” area that Ken Giles spoke of 5 years ago is a reality today, and is often referred to as “site-specific management” or, in some cases, “variable-rate application."

The reason we got into agronomic services 6 years ago was after a good equipment customer of ours made the decision to get into an air drill with variable-rate seeding capability. He’d gone to an independent agronomist who developed a seeding prescription with both a nutrient and seed variation. When that farmer took that prescription, got into the cab and plugged it in as he was told to do, it didn’t work.

It is the first liquid applicator on the market that is fully ISOBUS controlled for application, auto-section shutoff and variable-rate, along with sequence folding of the toolbar.