Twelve-year-old Ben Padwick lives on a farm, near Leicester, owned by The Co-operative Group and managed by his dad. He keeps a regular diary for First News of life on his family’s farm.

The other day Dad was showing some local farmers one of our big tractors. I was listening to him talk about how signals from space satellites were used to steer the tractors.

Later I asked Dad to explain more about the system. He told me that the tractor has a device on it that sends a signal to an aerial on top of our grain drier, and also up to a satellite. The satellite then returns a signal to the farm, which makes a triangle and so allows the tractor to be tracked on the ground.

What I find amazing is that the signals between the satellite and the aerial can be used to steer a tractor as well, so the man who drives the tractor doesn’t need to hold the wheel when it is going in a straight line. But he still needs to steer when he gets to the ends of the fields, to turn around.

So the next time you see a tractor on our farm the driver may not be holding the steering wheel, and it might be being driven from space. I think this is a bit scary, but also quite funny!