Agriculture Technology Podcast · RDO Equipment Co.

Ep. 227 - What We’ve Learned After Two Years of John Deere Autonomous Tillage

·31 min·2 clips

Model year 25 tractors are autonomy-ready from the factory, with only the perception system left to install.

Tony Kramer opens with Tyler Zima's background at RDO. Zima explains that his first day on the job put him straight into an Autonomous Tillage meeting with John Deere, and that he has now spent two years, four seasons, and seven tractors working alongside the solution. The conversation stays practical. Rather than treating autonomy like a far-off idea, they keep asking what it changes for a farm crew, how it fits into field work, and what it takes for a customer to trust the machine enough to step away from it. That question matters. If the operator is only swapping a steering wheel for a tablet and still has to stare at the equipment all day, the value drops fast, so the episode keeps coming back to where the labor actually goes. The answer is concrete. Autonomy should let someone tend another field, repair equipment, unload trucks, move a person to a different task, or learn a higher-value job instead of sitting at the edge of the field waiting. RDO's timeline helps ground that point. They look back at two years of work and four tillage seasons, which gives the discussion a real sense of what has been learned in the field. The rollout has changed, too. In 2024, the work centered on pilot units, where customers signed up to use a tractor and tillage tool and put acres on it. In 2025, the program moved to customer units, with customers who were interested in autonomy and willing to put the puck on their tractors and put acres on it. That shift matters. It changes the feel of the project from controlled testing to something closer to day-to-day operation, where the question is not whether the machine can run, but whether it fits the farm's workflow. Tony and Tyler keep translating technical terms into farm language and practical scenarios, so the episode never loses sight of how the system shows up in the cab, at the field edge, and in the rest of the operation. The result is clear. Listeners come away with a solid picture of what autonomous tillage has learned so far, where it has worked, and why the next step is less about spectacle and more about proving everyday value.

As heard by us

Autonomy only matters when it frees the operator for better work, not when it adds another screen to watch.

Tony Kramer and Tyler Zima keep the focus on what John Deere autonomous tillage actually changes on the ground. Over four seasons, and across seven tractors, the conversation lands on the same point: autonomy is only useful if it gives the operator room to do something else.

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Why you'd press play

You want a realistic read on how John Deere's autonomous tillage changes field work.

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