A four-row planter trolls through a field just off the highway in Miami, Oklahoma. Panic hits the drivers passing by as they notice the cab is empty and the machine, though distant, seems to be headed straight for the road.
Countless calls have been made to the local fire station, notifying first responders that an elderly farmer must have fallen out of his tractor, and they should prepare for the worst.
To their relief, the locals in the area have just been introduced to an autonomous tractor being beta-tested at Rendel Farms.
Zach Rendel, owner and operator of Rendel Farms, and Nick Martin, general manager of Modern Ag, recalled the incident with a laugh during a recent visit. Rendel and Martin’s newfound synergy has taken what seems like futuristic technology off of farm show floors and placed it in the field, both literally and figuratively.
This story exemplifies what happens when farmers place their trust in emerging technology to do the work that they’ve done their entire lives.
Auto steer to autonomy
Fledgling technology is not new in the agricultural community. Precision farming has been used to increase operations’ efficiency for decades. Many farmers had learned to adapt to changing times long before tractors could operate with an empty cab.
According to the American Farm Bureau, the use of variable rate fertilizer spreading, or using data and analytics to understand that different parts of a field hold different crop yields, can be seen as early as 1983. This is one of the first examples of precision farming, and the foundation of what is seen at Rendel Farms today.
The first GPS auto-guidance system was used in an agricultural setting in 1996, and by the early- to mid-2000s, the technology was commonplace. “Yield monitors and auto-steer were probably around 2006, 2007, somewhere in there, when we first got our first tractors outfitted,” Rendel said.
“We’re always expanding. We’re always moving. At our operation here, our philosophy is, if you’re not learning and adapting, you’re sitting still, and you’re getting left behind.”
Becoming the test lab
Rendel was first familiarized with autonomous tractors at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. He had no intention of purchasing any autonomous machinery when he visited the event, but after seeing it in action, the technology piqued his interest.
Rendel said to himself, “I think fully autonomous equipment fits into our operation, but without trying it, I don’t know.” He reached out to Modern Ag, establishing their relationship in 2025.
Modern Ag took charge, and Rendel was able to see just how its technology could change his farm. “We were able to see on our operation how it fit in, how it helped us. But it also helped the company figure out, here’s some key issues we need to take care of before we send this on down the line a little further,” he said.
Testing the technology in real time allows developers to troubleshoot any issues in the beta phase, which can’t happen at a trade show. The equipment needs to see dirt, obstacles and the elements to ensure that farmers are getting the best final product.
“We’ve demoed equipment that once we’re done, we get together as a group and talk and go, ‘We’re not ready to sell that yet,’” Modern Ag’s Martin said. “Maybe it needs too much support, or it’s not where it needs to be.”
At Rendel Farms, championing the shift to autonomous technology is the Sabanto Autonomous System. The Sabanto is an upgrade installed on tractors already in operation, making them autonomous. Actuators, sensors and a control box are wired to the machine so it can be used via laptop or smartphone.
Because the technology is still in its infancy, after the tractors are upgraded, the work isn’t done. “You try to foresee the future as much as you can, but until you get acres and hours on the equipment, there is still work,” Martin said.
A major hurdle with the technology is obstacle detection and avoidance. “There was this mirror on the side of the tractor. The camera was seeing a flasher in the mirror. The flasher bar got turned back just enough from the wind in the field that it flashed a light in the mirror, and the camera saw that and stopped the tractor,” Rendel said.
“So that’s the detection that they’re able to detect those minute things in a mirror, a light flashing. Who would have thought that?” This is why time in the field is so important.
Real barrier, the future
The hardest part isn’t installing the technology or finding out that a flashing light has your tractor stopped in a field; the real barrier is stepping out of the cab and trusting a machine with your livelihood.
“It’s kind of like your 16-year-old kid driving for the first time. You have to have faith that they’re going to do things correctly. They’re going to follow all the traffic laws and be responsible,” Rendel said.
“That right there, from a demo standpoint or from an operator, that was the hardest thing to do.”
In the end, the technology is not taking the job of a farmer; it’s allowing them to be in other places. Instead of being in a field after dark, it allows them to be at their kids’ birthdays or baseball games.
According to the USDA, farm sizes are getting bigger. There are more acres and fewer hands to do the work. Autonomy helps solve that issue.
“A lot of the concern we hear is, ‘are you replacing people?’ No, we aren’t, but that person that would have been in that cab can now go do something else,” Martin said. Rendel added, “The job’s still getting done, and I can go hang out with my kids. I can go spend time with my wife.”