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Modern tractors have become extraordinarily sophisticated. They may incorporate computers, electronic sensors, satellite navigation, automated steering and proprietary software. Some can diagnose their own faults, but the farmer may not be permitted or equipped to repair those faults. A relatively minor electronic failure can immobilise a very expensive machine until an authorised technician arrives.

Ursa Ag, a small Canadian tractor manufacturer based in Alberta, is taking a different course. Its tractors are deliberately built without computer controls. The company removes complex electronics and returns to proven mechanical systems that can be understood, maintained and repaired by farmers and independent workshops.

This does not mean returning to the horse-drawn plough. Ursa Ag tractors are powerful machines. The present range includes models of about 150, 180 and 260 horsepower. They use mechanically injected Cummins diesel engines and conventional mechanical controls. The electrical wiring is kept to what is necessary. There are no proprietary electronic control units governing every movement of the machine.

The result is a tractor that an experienced mechanic can examine with ordinary tools. A fault does not necessarily require a laptop, a software licence or permission from the manufacturer. Parts can be repaired or replaced without the entire machine becoming dependent upon a distant dealer.

Low technology does not mean primitive technology

Ursa Ag illustrates an important distinction. Low technology is not the rejection of machinery. It is the selection of machinery that is sufficiently simple, durable and repairable for the work it must perform.

The best technology for a shrinking economy may not be the most advanced technology available. It may be the technology that delivers a necessary service while making the least demand upon money, energy, specialised knowledge and distant supply chains.

A purely mechanical tractor may perform fewer functions than a computer-controlled machine. It may not offer automatic steering or precisely vary the application of fertiliser across a field. Yet it can continue working when digital communications fail, when software support is withdrawn or when the nearest authorised dealer is many miles away.

Its useful life may also be extended by repeated repair. This matters because the energy and materials already embodied in a machine should not be discarded merely because an electronic component has become obsolete.

The right to repair

Localism depends upon local competence. A locality cannot be resilient if every essential machine must be returned to a national manufacturer or connected to a remote computer before it can be repaired.

Mechanical equipment supports a local network of engineers, welders, machinists, parts suppliers and agricultural workshops. Knowledge remains within the locality and can be passed from one generation to another. Money paid for maintenance circulates locally instead of being extracted through software subscriptions and manufacturer-controlled servicing.

This principle extends well beyond tractors. Pumps, sawmills, heating systems, food-processing machinery and small generating equipment should all be designed so that their operation can be understood. Standard components should be replaceable. Manuals should be available. Repair should be expected rather than discouraged.

Ursa Ag’s approach is therefore closely connected to the right-to-repair movement. It restores a measure of ownership to the purchaser. A farmer who has paid for a tractor should be able to maintain it without continuing dependence upon the company that supplied it.

A machine suited to economic shrinkage

The highly automated tractor belongs to an economy that assumes abundant capital, reliable global supply chains and permanently available technical support. These assumptions become less secure as energy costs rise and the discretionary economy contracts.

Farmers will have less money available for machinery. At the same time, food production will become more important. Agricultural equipment will therefore have to remain in service for longer. It must be capable of being repaired repeatedly, sometimes by adapting locally available components.

Ursa Ag claims that its simpler tractors are significantly less expensive than comparable machines from the large manufacturers. Independent reporting says the company uses proven mechanically injected engines and avoids the proprietary diagnostic systems associated with many modern tractors. The trade-off is that its machines are not intended for the most advanced forms of digital precision farming. They are working tractors rather than mobile computer platforms. OmniTrattore provides a useful description of the design and its limitations.

Limits to the example

An Ursa Ag tractor is not a complete model for future local agriculture. It remains a large diesel-powered machine. It depends upon imported fuel, industrial tyres, replacement parts and a substantial manufacturing system. Nor does the company currently appear to have an established British sales and support network.

In the longer term, smaller farms and more labour-intensive cultivation may require lighter tractors, walk-behind machines, electric equipment, horses and greater use of human effort. Heavy machinery compacts soil and can encourage farming on a scale that is poorly suited to local food production.

Nevertheless, Ursa Ag demonstrates an important intermediate step. A society cannot move immediately from highly industrialised agriculture to an entirely local system. Existing mechanical power will remain necessary, particularly for ploughing, harvesting, lifting and transport.

The immediate task is to make that machinery simpler, cheaper, longer-lived and more locally repairable.

Technology under Localism

Localism will not divide technology neatly into the modern and the obsolete. It will distinguish between technology that strengthens a locality and technology that creates dependency.

A useful machine should be understandable by those who operate it. It should be repairable near where it is used. It should perform an essential task without unnecessary complication. Above all, it should remain useful when the affluent, globally connected economy in which it was produced can no longer be taken for granted.

Ursa Ag is important not because it has created a revolutionary tractor, but because it has rediscovered an old principle: the purpose of a machine is to do useful work, not to make its owner permanently dependent upon its manufacturer.

That principle will lie at the heart of technology in the coming age of Localism.