The tractor that flew to Australia (and has the wine industry talking)

The wine industry’s innovation and equipment showcase, WineTech 2025 saw the Australian debut of an autonomous electric tractor. It had travelled across the Tasman Sea not in a shipping container, but as checked-in luggage on a passenger jet. 

For a little thing, it made a big splash: 50+ leads from conference delegates! 

“We’d always joked about transporting the tractor as check-in luggage,” reflected Agovor co-founder, Richard Beaumont. “It certainly cuts down on our logistics cost.” 

It’s an anecdote that captures Agovor’s mix of ingenuity, practicality, and speed to market – the qualities driving the New Zealand agtech startup’s push into Australia.

GOVOR is a powerful, compact, fully autonomous electric tractor with interchangeable implements, purpose-built for specialty row crops. It uses IoT connectivity and GPS waypoints to autonomously tow and activate ‘Smart Trailer Attachments’ that cut labour, boost productivity, and collect valuable data to inform decisions on-farm.

“Right now, we have two attachments: an electric mower, and an under-row sprayer,” said Richard. And the benefits are immediate: a 90% reduction in energy costs, and a 90% reduction in labour – meaning managers can engage their team in higher value tasks.

“GOVOR costs just 3 cents in power per kilometre to run; that’s less than $1 per day for its 10-15-hour run-time,” explained Richard. “We call it a paradigm shift, because it enables growers to move away from heavy, diesel-powered tractors, to lightweight, quiet, zero-emission alternatives – all controlled from a smartphone.”

The Autonomous Vineyard Equipment Demonstration in McLaren Vale, South Australia, put GOVOR to the test where it matters most: in a working vineyard – navigating rows, mowing cover crops and grass closer to the vines than a ride-on, and all under the scrutiny of growers. 

Organised by SA AgriTech, and supported by grow^AG., Wine Australia, and Elders, the agtech meetup allowed Agovor to “soft launch” its product in Australia. “We’ve already got clients across horticulture: from raspberries, boysenberries, and strawberry tunnels to cherries and an apple orchard,” said Richard.

Another early adopter is Wither Hills, a Lion-owned vineyard in Blenheim, New Zealand. Assistant vineyard manager, Mike Western explained, “The primary reason for purchasing the robotic tractor (nicknamed ‘Elmo’ by staff) was to reduce soil compaction. The 8.8-hectare block is quite wet, and using a traditional tractor and implements was having a detrimental effect on the soil.”

Mike has now moved Elmo over to one of Wither Hills’ satellite vineyards, to mow 36 hectares. “It has never been our intention for the robot to replace a human,” explained Mike. “Rather, firstly, to reduce the impact we were having on the land, and secondly, to lessen the workload on staff during the peak growing season, when maintaining 410 hectares spread over 14 vineyards becomes difficult.” 

Richard said the pitch to potential customers is quite straightforward. “GOVOR is an easier sell than a lot of other agtech solutions. It targets efficiency and cost savings, not yield. So you don't need years and years of data to prove out its benefit; it starts paying for itself from day one.” 

“You can easily see the value piece,” continued Richard. “It’s electric. It’s built from aluminium and stainless steel, so it’s not going to rust. And it’s plug and play.”

Agovor does the onboarding for you, mapping the property, setting up the work plan, and providing training on how to operate it (a process Richard said takes just half an hour.) All the grower needs to do is press go on their smartphone, and the robot sets to work.  

Maintenance is remote-first. “That’s another part of our deliberate paradigm shift,” said Richard. “Most issues are fixed by us logging in remotely. If that fails, we’ll send you the part to replace yourself. Can’t do that? We’ll send out a technician.” 

“We know growers want uptime, so we’ve designed for that.” 

The idea for GOVOR was born in 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions cut staff at Richard’s co-owned wholesale tree and shrub nursery, Ardmore Nurseries, from 35 to five – overnight. “We were deemed a non-essential business, which meant we were only allowed to look after the plants; not open the store to customers,” he said. 

“With so few staff, one of our biggest problems was weeding. But nothing like a bit of adversity to spur on innovation. So my co-founder, Simon Carroll, and I teamed up with some engineering mates over WhatsApp, and that led to our first prototype.”

By the time they’d reached Version 4.5, the team realised the potential went far beyond the nursery industry. “What we’d built was perfect for repetitive, repeatable row tasks in horticulture, which is obviously a much bigger opportunity,” said Richard.

What’s next in the Agovor pipeline? “More attachments!” said Richard. “Every grower we speak to offers a new idea for implements: a swing-arm mower for organics; a mobile bird scarer; scouting and imaging tools; and even precision pest control.” 

“The possibilities really open up once you take away the cost of having a person sit in a tractor all day.” 

To meet demand, Agovor is currently raising NZD $3 million to grow its team, support international deployments, and build out its attachment suite. Strategic manufacturing partnerships are also on the table. 

“We’re in discussions with growers, investors, and corporate partners,” said Richard. “The plan is for Australia first, then Europe, and the US.”

Five years of trial and error, and the challenges of running a startup, has given Richard pause for thought. “My son said to me once, ‘Dad, you’re always working.’” 

“I didn’t have an answer at the time, but I thought about it a lot.”

“Eventually I went back to him and said, ‘In my own little way, I’m helping solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Reducing reliance on heavy, fossil-fuel machinery. Looking after soil health. Making food production more sustainable.’”

“People get these dreamy ideas about startups,” continued Richard. “But that's not our reason for doing this. We’re very much about seeing our product out in the wild, driving sustainability and helping productivity.” 

“Because, globally, the track record for both is not that great.”