Driverless tractors are coming to Long Island wine country

With the sound of its mower blades revving, the blue-gray tractor aligned itself before the first row of an Aquebogue vineyard and then proceeded to cut the grass — all without a driver.

It's the latest step toward fully autonomous farm operation on Long Island that is being led by the region's vineyards. 

Earlier this month, Paumanok Vineyards served as the test bed for fully autonomous operation by the tractor, which is made by Livermore, Calif.-based Monarch Tractor. The otherwise quiet vehicle aligned itself before rows, turned up the blades and went to work down the long rows before turning around and starting up another aisle. 

Paumanok, which also owns and operates Palmer Vineyards, took delivery of what some say is the region's first fully electric tractor this summer. The $90,000 vehicle, which joins Paumanok's fleet of 11 primarily diesel tractors, has been in use all summer, but without the fully autonomous feature. It chiefly is used to mow between rows and spray the vines for pests and disease.

Without the autonomous feature, which will be publicly available in about a year, the tractor can steer itself within rows, but it requires a driver to be onboard to turn at row’s end.

Similar automation has been used in vineyards before. In 2022, the owners of Rose Hill Vineyards used GPS-guided systems to plant vines and set posts for their new vineyard on Mill Lane in Mattituck, Newsday reported. 

The Monarch tractor features eight cameras that keep it from veering out of the rows, and has a 110-kilowatt hour battery that can operate for most of a workday without a charge.

And Paumanok, one of the first Long Island vineyards to fully incorporate solar power into its farm, can use the power it creates from the sun to keep the tractor charged at low cost or for free, winemaker Kareem Massoud said.

"If I can have a tractor that drives itself and mows, that's a big win," he said, noting that tractors at Paumanok, which has a total of 128 acres, are "constantly mowing." Massoud’s got two more on order, for next year’s season.

The tractor has a power shaft that connects to equipment such as row-mowers and hydraulic sprayers to maintain the vineyards. The fully automated operating feature could make the tractor able to operate at night without supervision, cutting energy and labor costs, Massoud said.

The $90,000 cost is "comparable" to a diesel-powered tractor, he said, but the farm has yet to fully explore state and federal subsidies that could help cover some of the costs. Massoud said the warranty is as good or better than his diesel-tractor warranties, and he expects the tractor to have an equivalent life of 15 years or better.

Paumanok has an order for two more of the tractors next year to further automate its fleet, which now chiefly runs on diesel fuel. Emission-free battery power is not only cheaper but cleaner, particularly when it’s fueled by solar power.

The tractor operates with only two fluids — hydraulics to power the attached equipment, and a coolant — significantly reducing maintenance costs because there's no oil to change. 

Rob Carpenter, administrative director of the Long Island Farm Bureau, said Paumanok is the first farm he's aware of on Long Island that has a fully-electric tractor. "Definitely for Long Island, they are one of the pioneers," he said, noting the farm was among the first to widely use solar panels that can power the tractor. 

Carpenter said it may take a while for wider adoption of electric tractors, despite the obvious benefits. Federal and state subsidies for the vehicles, he noted, appear to be scarce, though he plans to advocate for more in the coming year. 

The large power needs of tilling farms may be too much of a power drain for the capacity of current batteries. "The technology is starting to catch up to agriculture," Carpenter said. But "that day's coming," he added. 

Monarch’s local representative, Rich Wildman, managing member of AG to Go, said the tractor running at Paumanok is the first in the state, and among a limited number running on farms across the county. Most are on vineyards, he said, primarily in California. One of the founders of Monarch is Carlo Mondavi of the famed California wine family, who is Monarch’s chief farming officer.

"It can do all the things a regular tractor can do," Wildman said. The challenge: "Farm management has to be willing to change."

Monarch, launched in 2017, said it has sold more than 450 of the tractors across the U.S. since it began delivering them in 2022, Monarch rep Cody Light said. 

Massoud said Paumanok’s standard for converting to electric tractors was simple: "The product had to be as good or better than what it was replacing." After two months on the farm, it’s met the standard, he said, slowly reducing its annual diesel-fuel use — no small matter as diesel averages around $3.60 a gallon this month.

The tractor was used to mow one of the larger grass fields on the farm this month without a hitch, Massoud said. "It’s a game changer."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.