NEW HAVEN, Ky. – Affinity Farms in New Haven is the first farm in Kentucky to plant its entire crop autonomously this year, joining fewer than 50 farms across the country using the technology. The development highlights how autonomous equipment may help reduce costs and improve efficiency for farmers.

Quint Pottinger, whose family has operated Affinity Farms since 1788, said the switch from two large John Deere tractors and planters to one smaller tractor with autonomous technology has allowed him to cut significant expenses.

“Last year, I was running a 16-row planter and averaging 60-70 acres a day,” Pottinger said. “So far, with an eight-row planter, half the width, we’re hitting close to 100 acres a day, and I’m not in the cab. I just hit the ‘go’ button and watched as it planted while I was at a meeting. It’s unbelievable. The dang thing runs 20 hours a day. We had cut costs everywhere we could. The only thing left was equipment.”

Pottinger planted 2,000 acres of corn and soybean crops armed with an iPad linked remotely to his 6130E John Deere tractor and Deere 1745 life-and-twist planter.

Historically, it has taken Pottinger 23 days with a pair of 16-row planters to seed his farm. This year, he planted it in 19 days.

The farm raises corn, wheat, rye, barley and soybeans.

“We’re break-even before fertilizer prices and seed prices went up this year,” he said. “We’re actually showing a negative forecast. So, when you turn that kind of money back, and it makes you profitable, when we haven’t been very profitable the last three years, that’s a big deal.”

Pottinger believes that other Kentucky farms could benefit by adopting similar systems with smaller tractors retrofitted for automation rather than investing in expensive new machinery with additional features like air conditioning or radios.

“A farm in Kentucky could probably cut out $1 million in capital expenditures by using this system,” he said. “We’re returning $400,000 back to the farm this year.”

He emphasized that his move is about economics rather than labor reduction.

“This is an economic play, not a labor play,” Pottinger said, noting he has kept all migrant workers but reassigned them. “It’s a game changer. I was the one doing the planting, so it saves me time, and I can focus on other things. It was all about saving on equipment costs.”

According to Pottinger, the autonomous setup uses GPS for precision planting within one centimeter accuracy but requires manual intervention at field corners due to irregular shapes common in Kentucky fields.

“Typically, we have about two acres of corners to fill in for a 30- to 40-acre field,” he said. “If we can do it in Kentucky with our irregular shaped fields, you can do it anywhere.”

“So instead of having two large frame tractors that are 250 horsepower plus two large planters, totaling a cost of $700,000, now we can run one small planter, one small frame tractor with the automation, for $180,000,” Pottinger said.

“All it’s doing is pulling the amount of equipment we have on the farm. It allows our high-skilled labor to focus on tasks that need to be hands-on, like grading grain for the distilleries,” he said.

When asked if he believes this sort of technology will diminish jobs on a similar, mid-sized farm, he said no.

“If anything, I could see it maybe increasing jobs, because it allows farms to specialize a little bit more because they’re running smaller equipment, which can help diversify what types of crops they grow,” Pottinger said.

Last fall, Pottinger began using the smaller tractor, retrofitted for automation using a kit from Sabanto, paired with the smaller planter.

“We did it last year with our winter crops,” he said. “We grow barley, wheat and rye for the whiskey industry, but this is the first year we’ve done it with corn.

“We’re the first farm globally to do it at the farm level without being a research or company project. We received no assistance and paid full retail price for our new equipment without having to go into debt.”

The technology, developed by Sabanto, retrofits existing equipment for the automation.

Sabanto’s kit includes antennas, dual GNSS receiver, obstacle detection sensors and video cameras. Infrared object detection sensors are mounted on the cab and the front of the tractor. The tractor’s vehicle path-finding module converts operator instructions into tractor performance. The tractor product retails for $70,000.

Sabanto CEO Craig Rupp sees a glimpse of the future in Pottinger’s operation.

“I’m convinced that the future is smaller swarms of equipment,” he said. “If you just look at reducing capital expenditures by 70 percent in a $4 corn market, that’s compelling,” he said. “Autonomy will bring horsepower in the other direction, with longer hours of operation and with less costly equipment.”