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Using tech to combat labor challenges

Finding skilled labor is one of the big challenges facing America’s farmers and ranchers.  According to PTx Trimble, about 33 percent of acres in the Midwest are harvested late, causing thousands of dollars in lost income.

Colton Rathman with PTx says OutRun is a self-contained retrofit kit that enables autonomous grain cart operation with John Deere 8R tractors that are equipped with IVT.  He says the kit allows the combine operator to use a tablet to stage or position the grain cart around the field, call for a pickup, command the cart to navigate and align with the combine for an unload, and then send the grain cart to a truck.

He tells Brownfield this is one way farmers can use autonomy to reduce labor shortage challenges.