Killarney-area Farmer Matt Reimer is back home after a month long visit to France, which included a stop-over in Paris to speak at an open source software conference.

Reimer has written a program which allows him to operate his tractor and grain cart remotely, which comes in handy for unloading his combine during harvest.

The software is open source, which means that anybody can have access to it, free of charge.

Reimer was asked why he wanted to share his idea free of charge.

"The idea is not to make money from one good idea, but from say integrating that idea into people's vehicles," he explained. "If the whole autonomous tractor thing ever gets some traction and people want to have them, then absolutely I want to get paid for doing the work of installing the equipment and providing updates."

Reimer notes that while there isn't a lot of demand for his services right now, he hopes that will change in the future.

He adds the plan is to add a feature that would allow a tractor to roll soybeans without a driver.