Key Takeaways:
- Burro is expanding its deployment of autonomous robots with Petitti Family Farms in Lake County, Ohio.
- The farm’s fleet of Burro Grande robots will grow from 10 to 25 by the end of 2025.
- The robots currently tow loads up to 5,000 lbs across more than 400 acres and will take on new workflows such as autonomous spraying.
- Petitti Family Farms produces tens of millions of plants annually across 4,000 acres.
- Burro’s technology is designed to address labor shortages and improve productivity in outdoor work environments.
Burro's Expansion in Northern Ohio
Burro, a developer of autonomous outdoor robots, announced the expansion of its fleet at Petitti Family Farms in Lake County, Ohio. The farm will increase its number of Burro Grande robots from 10, deployed earlier this year, to 25 by the end of 2025.
The Burro Grandes are currently used to tow heavy payloads of plants and materials across the farm’s 400-acre Ridge Manor site. New workflows, including autonomous spraying, are being introduced to further reduce manual labor demands.
Challenging Conditions and Adoption
Charlie Andersen, Co-Founder and CEO of Burro, described the scale of operations: “Petitti Family Farms has over 4,000 production acres. They produce and ship tens of millions of plants each year. And you can throw a rock into Lake Erie from Ridge Manor (site of initial Burro deployment). They have sudden, extreme weather conditions. It’s really dynamic — mud, snow, ice, wind, condensation, foot traffic, equipment traffic, seasonality, constantly changing lighting conditions — to name a few. And the stakes are high. If there happens to be a storm during peak season, shipments still need to leave the dock.”
Joe Allio, President of Petitti Family Farms, added: “We started with 10 Burro Grandes at our Ridge Manor farm. By the end of the first week, we knew there was no going back. The most encouraging thing was how quickly our employees adopted the robots. They were excited and took to them right away. Our team was running them on their own, and the Burros were doing real production work, effectively right out of the box.”
Technology and Market Context
Burro emphasizes that its robots are designed to improve productivity in outdoor environments facing labor shortages. “Our customers face severe and costly labor shortages, and profitability is challenged like never before,” Andersen said. “The only way that agriculture and other labor-intensive industries will be viable long-term in the U.S. is to boost productivity per employee with automation, AI, and other technologies.”
Burro robots have logged over 800,000 hours and 175,000 miles of autonomous operations in varied conditions, from tropical storms in Florida to sub-zero winters in the Northeast. The robots collect terabytes of data daily, supporting continuous improvement of their AI and machine learning systems.
Partnership and Future Outlook For Burro
Ryan Clifford, Senior Vice President at Burro, highlighted the long-term vision: “We see this partnership as the blueprint for the farm of the future. Small teams of upskilled workers, working hand in hand with larger fleets of autonomous robots. Rather than an employee driving a tractor on a tedious 10-minute one-way trip, out in the elements — they take less than 10 seconds to choose a destination and send the Burro there autonomously. Do that ten times an hour, and you’ve added a ton of productivity.”
According to Allio, the expansion signals a long-term commitment: “At this point, we’ve established a trusted partnership with the Burro team. This new commitment further establishes our long-term partnership with Burro. Given our size and scale, we think we could use 50 or more Burros across all of our operations. This is only the beginning.”
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