���ü���������

Monarch Tractor has announced the world’s first fully electric, driver optional, smart tractor integrated on one platform.

A statement from the company said the machine offers solutions to challenges such as the farm labor shortage, climate change, and farmer safety.

“Monarch Tractor addresses these issues by combining electrification, automation, machine learning, and data analysis to enhance farmer’s existing operations, increase labor productivity and safety, and maximize yields to cut overhead costs and emissions,” the company said. It also said it has secured several hundred working farms as preliminary customers.

The tractor can operate with or without a driver. Without a driver, it can perform pre-programmed tasks, or an operator can use interactive automation features to remotely direct the machine.

Carlo Mondavi, a fourth-generation farmer and chief farming officer at Monarch, said the equipment “is moving farming toward a safer and sustainable future by eliminating harmful emissions, reducing the need for herbicides and keeping workers out of harm’s way with its driver-optional capabilities.”

The company received “2020 Tractor of the Year” in the AgTech Breakthrough Awards, was named one of World Ag Expo’s “Top 10 Best New Products,” and recognized in Fast Company’s “Best World-Changing Ideas: North America, Energy and Food.”

The tractor has a starting price of $50,000. It will begin to ship in the fall.

Source: Ag ���ü��������� Intelligence