Ursa Ag Is Giving Farm Owners What They Really Want: A Repairable No-Tech Tractor

As the war for the Right to Repair your vehicles continues, some companies have doubled-down on making your self repairs outright impossible and expensive, while a rare few are doing right by making their products easier to service from the get-go. One Canadian company has taken the torch to manufacture repairable vehicles with no tech, just for a more niche industry: farming.

On its website, Ursa AG, the no-tech tractor company from Alberta, Canada describes itself as "founded out of the need for affordable, dependable tractors. Simple designs that eliminate unnecessary electronics, computers, and sensors." Its founder and owner, Doug Wilson, told 404 Media, "I talk to farmers every day and I hear from farmers every day about how they went out and bought machinery from 1987 so that it wouldn't have a computer on it" He added, "All of this came from a simple discussion with a customer who wanted to be able to turn [the tractor] on at the start of the day, to use it, and shut it off at the end of the day. It needed to work, so that's what we built."

The result is an anti-John Deere solution that would support its customers rather than leave them strapped for cash or forced into dealer-only repairs. Deere has long been the face of "the problem" with the lack of a Right to Repair law. The Illinois-based equipment company has collected its fair share of lawsuits due to its monopoly over its tractors and parts. And its seems to gain them as quickly as it tries to pay to make them go away. Earlier this year, it settled a 2022 class-action suit for $99 million, although that seems like a bargain considering a recent article by The Wall Street Journal reported that its dealers overcharged upwards of $287 million dollars. But one lawsuit replaced another, the WSJ reporting yet another suit was filed against the manufacturer, this time by a Chicago landscaping contractor.

While Deere continues to pay to make its problems go away, Ursa AG is helping relieving farmers of the expensive headache of trying to get tractors and equipment serviced, and avoiding having to invest in 40-year-old technology to get things done, and on the cheaper side. Currently offered on Ursa AG's website are four different tractors, powered by either a 150 hp 5.9L Cummins diesel, or by its larger 260 hp 8.3L Cummins diesel engine, two engines that have been around for a considerably long time and are typically easy to service because of their ubiquity and longevity on the market.

Response to Ursa AG's products was overwhelming. Wilson said after a Canadian Farm Show earlier this year, as well as a featured article on Farms.com, more than a thousand farmers from approximately 30 countries contacted the company. One, was a French farmer who reached out via handwritten letter explaining he didn't own a computer, and asked if the company would mail him information about its tractors.

Now, Ursa AG is still shiny and new, and have made about 100 tractors so far, but according to Wilson the company is looking to triple that production capacity to help meet its new demand. Sure, it's not producing anything close to the numbers John Deere produces, but not everyone wants low tech. And maybe, just maybe there's a better world in simplifying how much we make to meet demand and not overdo inventories.

It begs the question, if there's room for a company like Ursa AG to meet the niche of no-tech vehicles, what could that unlock for our own road-going transportation? Considering EPA mandates don't seem to matter, maybe it's possible to create a simplified, no-tech (or minimal tech) vehicle that could even tread the sub-$20,000 price point? Maybe I'm too much of a dreamer in that regard. But I will say, the idea of driving a car that is less of a mobile office sounds incredibly refreshing and welcoming in our overconnected world.