"I didn't see it!"
- Thread starter bcp
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Gary Fowler
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I also read a while back that farmers are getting satellite imagery to determine what and when to spray for weed control. Based on the satellite image of the growing crops, the tractors navigate the field, sprayers open valves automatically to spray only where needed for weed control. Technology has sure come a long way since I was on the farm almost 50 years ago. Sounds like farmers need to be computer programmers now.
CDN Farm Boy
Veteran Member
Ya lost me there. If a computer is doing your job, how are you still farming -- the computer is, not you.
BrokeFarmerJohn
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"I didn't see it!"
If you own the property, you own the tractor and you tell the tractor what to do then your still a farmer.
If the GPS guided tractor does a more efficient job at whatever the task is that makes you more money or saves you more money?
If you could make a exterior pass and walk away letting a fully autonomous tractor work the field, that would save you time and the cost of a farm hand.
Computers don't sleep, they don't get hungry or tired.
A farmer would be foolish not to embrace technology.
Saying technology is going to put the farmer out of the job is like saying it's stupid to buy bigger tractors. Do you think the little farmer with horses could keep up with a 8n? Or a small farmer running the 8n could keep up with a 300hp Case Magnum or even the farmer with that 300hp magnum competing with Big Bud.
The more industrialized the farming industry becomes the more the smaller farmers unwilling to adapt to change will be put out of business.
Here's a perfect example for you, part of my family has a 600 acre farm, I talked to my second cousin one day and asked them if they have tried a no-till drill.
He said they bought a no till, planted corn and it was the worst crop they ever planted, I asked what kind of cover crop did they use and he said they never used a cover crop.
According to The Ohio State University, if you run a No-till program correctly you will yield a greater crop than you will tilling the soil, they have test sites where they experiment with different methods and seed blends in order to try to perfect the no-till, so far they can get more bushels out of there no till plots than they can tilling the ground.
Granted with no-till your buying more seed and herbicide but all your running is a tractor, a drill and an applicator for the herbicide, it takes a lot of diesel to till ground and it's proving not to be beneficial to the soil composition.
It's sad to say but old school farmers will be left behind, my second cousin always complains that there's no money in farming, that's true for a farmer not willing to adapt to more efficient methods.
If you own the property, you own the tractor and you tell the tractor what to do then your still a farmer.
If the GPS guided tractor does a more efficient job at whatever the task is that makes you more money or saves you more money?
If you could make a exterior pass and walk away letting a fully autonomous tractor work the field, that would save you time and the cost of a farm hand.
Computers don't sleep, they don't get hungry or tired.
A farmer would be foolish not to embrace technology.
Saying technology is going to put the farmer out of the job is like saying it's stupid to buy bigger tractors. Do you think the little farmer with horses could keep up with a 8n? Or a small farmer running the 8n could keep up with a 300hp Case Magnum or even the farmer with that 300hp magnum competing with Big Bud.
The more industrialized the farming industry becomes the more the smaller farmers unwilling to adapt to change will be put out of business.
Here's a perfect example for you, part of my family has a 600 acre farm, I talked to my second cousin one day and asked them if they have tried a no-till drill.
He said they bought a no till, planted corn and it was the worst crop they ever planted, I asked what kind of cover crop did they use and he said they never used a cover crop.
According to The Ohio State University, if you run a No-till program correctly you will yield a greater crop than you will tilling the soil, they have test sites where they experiment with different methods and seed blends in order to try to perfect the no-till, so far they can get more bushels out of there no till plots than they can tilling the ground.
Granted with no-till your buying more seed and herbicide but all your running is a tractor, a drill and an applicator for the herbicide, it takes a lot of diesel to till ground and it's proving not to be beneficial to the soil composition.
It's sad to say but old school farmers will be left behind, my second cousin always complains that there's no money in farming, that's true for a farmer not willing to adapt to more efficient methods.
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