When John Deere Australia and New Zealand production systems manager Ben Kelly imagines the future of farming, he sees both large and small autonomous machines.
He said machinery manufacturers hadn't even scratched the surface of what data and autonomy could unlock for farmers and the future was going to be exciting.
Mr Kelly shared his views on how autonomous machinery was likely to be application specific during a panel session at the 400M Agrifood Innovation Forum in Toowoomba last week.
"I think we will see both, I actually think horticulture is very much suited to a swarm style where you have multiple small machines moving around," he said.
"Broadacre, the challenge you will have is getting the same amount of productivity out of smaller machines and those smaller machines being at a price point where it's actually viable.
"We have sprayers that are 160 foot wide doing 25 kilometres an hour, that's a lot of swarmed machines to keep up with that kind of productivity."
Seventh Wave Consulting principal research consultant Elliot Duff said when it comes to robotics and autonomy, the question that needs to be asked is what is the role of the farmer?
"We need to ask that question now, before we invent technology to replace them," he said.
Mr Kelly said the use of autonomous machinery wasn't about removing jobs, it was about solving problems like labour shortages and enabling farmers to get the productivity they need.
"When we launched guidance 20 years ago, social media wasn't around," he said.
"When we launched autonomy, wow, there were a lot of people on social media that were very scathing about eliminating jobs and taking the fun out of agriculture, which is surprising because we thought it was exciting.
"I think ultimately with autonomy, we will still have the same size workforce of today in agriculture but we need to be transitioning that workforce we have today into a higher skillset workforce."
The panel also delved into the barriers holding back the adoption of agtech on Australian farms.
They all agreed connectivity remained a sizable hurdle.
Another stumbling block was the regulatory and policy frameworks, which had not caught up to the fast-evolving technology.
Mr Kelly said trust was also a barrier.
"Trust in technology in general is a huge barrier but if the technology is good enough that will overcome that," he said.
"And I think trust in data and the sharing of information, the key there is transparency."
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The panellists agreed electrification has a future in agriculture, with Mr Duff going so far as to say "we should have gone electric decades ago".
Robotics Australia Group chairwoman Dr Sue Keay, who facilitated the discussion, had this perspective to add from the mining industry.
"I don't think you can decouple your automation and your decarbonisation roadmaps," she said.
"I think they're intimately linked and I think what you'll see in agriculture will probably mirror what's already happening in mining where you cannot get investment for new mines unless you demonstrate that you are heading towards net zero and that means all of your equipment has to go electric."
Dr Keay said going electric was not necessarily an easy thing to do with heavy equipment, unless you had "batteries the size of road trains in the case of some mining equipment".
That was why the industry was exploring hydrogen-powered solutions.
"Everyone is just sitting there waiting to say hallelujah when someone solves that for us because it's completely necessary and I'd be very surprised if you don't start seeing that same type of thinking happening in agriculture," she said.
"Some of your bigger holdings will start to struggle to get investment unless they show how they are working towards net zero and having the electrification of your equipment is an essential component."