Kubota Tractor Corporation has launched WorkSmart Autosteer, a precision guidance system built for compact and utility equipment rather than the large row-crop tractors such systems were designed for. It made its public debut at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, and is the first product under WorkSmart, a new initiative the company describes as bringing factory-fitted and retrofitted technology to its range while keeping things simple.

The system works like an autopilot: it holds the steering line while the operator stays in charge of everything else. Austin Hawkins, Senior Manager of Technology Sales and Marketing at Kubota North America, says the aim is not to take the operator out of the decision-making but to cut fatigue and error so that people can cover more ground.

Most guidance products, Hawkins notes, were developed for large row-crop farmers and have grown complex and costly for smaller-acreage owners who do not need section control or variable-rate application. Where such products are usually sold as third-party retrofit kits, WorkSmart Autosteer is engineered for the specific model it goes on and is sold, installed, serviced, warranted and financed through one Kubota dealer.

Kubota's own analysis of a typical operation lists the pay-offs: each pass lines up with the last, so seed, fertiliser and crop-protection products land where they were planned; overlap — the duplication that manual steering leaves and that a farm effectively pays for twice — is reduced; and the job no longer depends on one operator's experience. The company positions it as a single system that scales from broadacre work to specialty crops, where consistent lines keep row spacing, and to turf and grounds work.

The system comes with two correction levels, both run through Kubota's standard user interface. A dealer can install it in about two hours, including operator training, and a free WorkSmart Autosteer app for iOS and Android provides calibration guides, tutorials and troubleshooting videos and lets users update the system remotely.

It is compatible with selected Kubota tractors, mowers and RTVs and covers seeding and planting, tillage and cultivation, hay work, spraying and spreading, mowing, road grading, and orchard and vineyard work. The retail price is $6,000 excluding installation, it fits new and used Kubota equipment, and it is available now through authorised dealers in the United States. No rollout dates have been announced for Europe, Australia or New Zealand.

Source: Future Farming