Driverless tractors could help solve labour shortages on Australian farms, according to CNH Industrial Australia and New Zealand managing director Brandon Stannett.
Mr Stannett said such autonomous machines are here "today" but it will be a few years before they become more mainstream.
"Automation is here, today," he said.
"We've got tractors that will drive themselves in a straight line, get to the end of that row, lift up that implement, turn them around, put the implement back down and keep going."
He was speaking to Stock & Land at the recent Future Ag Expo at the Melbourne Showgrounds.
CNH Industrial, a global tech and iron company, owns New Holland and had a sizeable presence at the event.
Mr Stannett said innovation in the machinery sector was "absolutely fundamental support for on-farm operations".
"We saw through Covid, the impact of restrictions in imported labour," he said.
"The farm sector does rely on seasonal labour and automation plays a great part in that.
"Machine to machine control where you'll have one operator controlling two or three different machines, that's with us today, that sort of technology.
"Certainly automation provides support for that labour availability."
The machinery industry boss said the limitation on automation for farm machinery was less about new tractors and more about the environment it was used in.
"The limitation is what are you doing with the tractor," Mr Stannett said.
"It's the implement control and getting the finesse and detail of what that implement is actually doing at the back of the tractor.
"That's the limitation, let alone all of the environmental and structural limitations to map your farm correctly and have it ready for automation."
Considering the road to set farms up for driverless machinery, he said it would be more important to refine the autonomous activities within the machinery already being used.
He said this included end of row turns on tractors and harvest command features in combines
Mr Stannett said automation innovation could create situations where a farmer had an unskilled operator operating a complex combine harvester at the level of productivity of the most experienced operator.
"We've got sensors all over the machine, you tell it what you want to prioritise - getting across the paddock quickly, grain loss, grain quality - and the machine will make the adjustments," he said.
"It will do it consistently, all day long, even when the operator gets tired."
However, he said the average farmer would not be able to afford driverless tractors for a while yet.
"Certainly not in the next two or three years," he said.
"The autonomous and alternative fuel vehicles that we're bringing to market, they're very expensive.
"They're not in reach of the average farmer that's got a small plot but certainly those early adopters that are professional farmers, they're eagerly adopting technology that's fit for purpose, robust."
