Power to the Producer: The Case for Right to Repair

Farmers need the right to repair the equipment they depend on.?

We take for granted the fact that modern farm equipment is so complex and protectionary that most producers aren’t able to fix their machinery themselves. If you were a farmer a few decades ago, the assumption was that you had the skills and tools needed to quickly make repairs if your machinery broke down. Today that is just not the case.?

The explosion of technology on farms has had many great benefits, creating new efficiencies and operational scale that would have been unimaginable for previous generations. However, the complexity of our modern equipment, combined with the fact that three companies create 95% of it, has created a scenario where farmers wholly rely on dealership technicians.

Due to growing political pressure and farmer sentiment, we are starting to see manufacturers say that they support right to repair; however, when you look at the way modern farming machinery is designed and built, you could assume it was never intended that farmers would be able to repair it in the first place.?

This has always struck me as ridiculous.?

When I first started SwarmFarm, my team and I spent hours researching ways companies were approaching the right to repair.

And most of what we found was disappointing.?

We discovered an industry rife with an overtly concentrated hold on farm equipment, where farmers struggle to support their own machinery and perform field repairs themselves.? This leaves farmers like us with no choice but to pay exorbitant fees for fixes from licensed dealerships.?

And this created a system where manufacturers make up to six times more on parts and repairs than the actual sale of equipment - not to mention the significant delays and opportunity costs associated with potentially small fixes.?

In my mind, this approach seemed backward: why should farmers who try to run their businesses be destined to work through a dealer model just because that’s the way it’s always been done? The more logical path forward was to create a business model that equipped manufacturers to provide a full-service offering to farmers that equipped them with the tools they needed to run their business how they decided to run it.?

So that’s what I built.?

The new way to think about farm equipment is as an additive tool that you can use to run your business, not a reductive piece of machinery that you can’t control

At SwarmFarm, we put you in control of your equipment by building robots that are not only autonomous but also integrated.

Integrated into your local community by allowing you and your local mechanic to access the tools you need to make real-time fixes. Designed with purpose, to be farmer first and able to be supported out in the field with basic tools. Integrated with live support in the field if things go sideways. Integrated into an advanced development ecosystem that goes beyond simple autonomy and opens up an entirely new system for farming.?

Instead of forcing producers to design their farms and their processes around an antiquated, protectionist business model, our approach puts the needs of the farmer first and creates a technology ecosystem around them.?

If you are interested in learning more about how Integrated Autonomy is transforming the agricultural industry, please reach out. We would be happy to share more about our vision for the future of this incredible industry.

Ready to farm more freely? Check out SwarmFarm today!