U.S. Sugar, Everglades Equipment Group and Autonomous Solutions Inc. have announced the nation’s largest commercial deployment of autonomous tractors in the American sugar industry. The fleet of unmanned John Deere tractors are being implemented on 255,000 acres of farmland in South Florida.
The fleet of tractors are operating in sugarcane fields 24 hours a day, seven days a week. While traditionally manually operated, these tractors are outfitted with ASI’s Vehicle Automation Kit to operate autonomously from a central command station, allowing a single operator to manage multiple vehicles using ASI’s autonomous fleet management platform.
According to U.S. Sugar, “The autonomous tractors deliver measurable benefits across U.S. Sugar’s farms, including improved accuracy, higher production, enhanced sustainability and increased reliability in land preparation. The technology was piloted on U.S. Sugar’s farmlands during an 18-month research and development phase.“
Ken McDuffie, President and CEO of U.S. Sugar said, “U.S. Sugar has always believed that combining?innovation?with hard work is the best way to keep feeding American families. By leveraging American technology to increase efficiency and maximize productivity, we are also increasing reliability in our domestic food supply while creating new, higher-skilled opportunities for our employees.”
Mike Schlechter, Everglades Equipment Group President said, “Everglades Equipment Group is proud to stand alongside U.S. Sugar and ASI in bringing this next-generation of agricultural technology to South Florida’s fields. By pairing John Deere’s trusted equipment with cutting-edge autonomous systems, we are helping growers boost productivity, improve accuracy and reduce resource use, all while keeping American agriculture at the forefront of innovation.”
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.