Kubota tractor operators wanting an autosteer system can now purchase and have kits installed through the manufacturer’s UK dealers following a Europe-wide commercial agreement with Topcon.

Kits will be supplied in Britain by Topcon distributor LH Agro and across the Irish sea by Topcon Ireland, providing service, technical support and a 24-month warranty.

Autosteer packages, comprising motorised steering wheel and fully integrated solutions, are available for all Kubota M tractor families, from the 66hp M4-063 to the 170hp M7-173 KVT Premium, which, like all M7 Premium models, comes factory-equipped for an autosteering installation.

Options include a four-way choice of display terminals with different capabilities and features, and correction signals with various levels of pass-to-pass accuracy up to RTK.

A Topcon auto-steer kit for a Kubota M7 tractor with 7in XD display compatible with automatic headland turn and multiple precision farming applications is priced from £6,500.

Topcon auto-steer solutions are now available through Kubota dealers for all M-family tractors © Kubota

Driverless

In North America, a fully autonomous operation kit for Kubota M5 tractors has been launched by Sabanto, a company that until now has used its driverless tractor technology to provide field cultivation and crop planting services with such tractors.

Sabanto advocates using fleets of small, lightweight tractors under autonomous operation as a way of tackling labour shortages and lowering costs while protecting soil structure.

The kit can be retrofitted to 95hp M5-091 and 113hp M5-111 tractors already in service in North America, as well as to new examples, and Sabanto is finalising a version for Fendt 700 Vario Gen6 tractors.