Computer technology takes over farming tasks

Roland Zimmerman spent three decades teaching high school agriculture students about raising livestock and rotating crops.

His son is following in his footsteps but with different teaching methods.

By John Seewer, Associated Press

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-27-ag-tech_x.htm

Barrett Zimmerman’s students at Clyde High School operate a Global Positioning System and computer software to make maps of fields and determine how much fertilizer is needed.

They analyze data gathered by a yield monitor to determine how the fertilizer affects corn production in the fields they tend.

"My friends think it’s all physical work," said Christopher Dwight, a senior. "They think I sit on a tractor all day. It’s not really like that."

Computer technology has taken over many farming tasks in the last decade.

Tractors and combines are bigger, faster and smarter. Soil tests and topography maps enable farmers to know more about their land. Crops that are genetically engineered are more resistant to disease and pests.

The result: Farmers overall are producing record crops despite using less land than ever before.

Farmers nationwide this year are expected to deliver a second consecutive record-breaking corn crop that will top 11 billion bushels, 15% larger than a year ago.

Vegetable farmers in California are using a new irrigation method to increase production of bell peppers and melons. Ranchers in the West hope electronic tags will stop mad cow disease.

Some say the economics of farming — low prices for grain and livestock — are pushing farmers to produce more and expand operations while forcing smaller farmers out of business. Others contend it is technology driving the revolution.

Bobby Moser, dean of Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, sees evidence of both.

"What you’ve seen is a decline in the number of farmers, but farm size has increased," Moser said. "It’s all because these farmers are adopting these new technologies into their operations and that allows them to farm more land and increase production."

Agriculture, he said, must operate more efficiently and become more productive.

Zimmerman, who farms part time when he’s not teaching, said the technology may have brought about unintended results.

"We’ve sort of shot ourselves in the foot," he said. "We’ve become so productive that the only way to survive is to get bigger."

Ohio Farm Bureau President Bob Peterson said the intertwining of agriculture and technology is no different than what’s happening in all industries.

Nearly half of Ohio’s farmers use a computer to maintain financial records, track market prices or make business deals, according to an Ohio State survey released a year ago.

One of three farmers use some type of precision farming practice, such as grid soil sampling, combine yield monitors or guidance systems for tractors.

The problem, said John Ellerman, executive director of the Ohio Farmers Union, is that the cost of technology is driving many small and midsize farms out of business.

Auto steer equipment for a tractor costs anywhere from $10,000-$40,000. The tractors can sell for well over $100,000.

"Farmers will buy the latest technology, and then realize thei don’t have enough acres to spread those costs out, so they need to expand," Ellerman said. "It’s like a dog chasing its tail — they just can’t keep up.

"A couple years later, they go out and get the latest technology and they go through the same cycle," he said.

Once an operation becomes a large-scale farm, "you end up managing people rather than the cows. It becomes a very different business," said Jeremy Foltz, associate director of the University of Wisconsin’s Program on Agricultural Technology Studies.

For many farmers, the only way to stay in the business is to go after niche markets, selling to people who "want to know where their food comes from, how it’s raised and where it’s grown," Ellerman said.

Peterson thinks there still is a place for both large and small farms.

A growing number of fruit and vegetable farmers near cities and suburbs sell directly to groceries and restaurants, including organic farmers.

"There are tremendous opportunities in agriculture," Peterson said. "But it may not be doing the same thing you always did."

Supporters of large-scale farming say advances in technology also are making farming more environmentally friendly.

Chemical sprayers now come with computer-controlled nozzles that make sure the chemicals are applied with greater precision and less waste. Peterson said farmers also are using less fertilizer.

"My grandfather would have fertilized a field by hauling manure out of the barn," he said.

"Now we grid fields and make fertilizer recommendations on a one- or two-acre plot. My son, if he farms, he’ll be able to apply fertilizer based on individual plants."

Opponents of large-scale farming, though, say that putting a large number of animals under one roof creates more livestock waste and pollution.

"Technology is turning what was agriculture into industry," said Chris Cooper, spokesman for the New York-based GRACE Factory Farm Project.

Rex Spray, who farms near Mount Vernon in central Ohio, began experimenting with organic farming in the mid-1970s. No chemicals. No Global Positioning Systems. No genetically enhanced crops.

"When I was a kid everybody farmed this way," said Spray, 74.

"It may be the salvation of small farmers because so many farmers have been pushed out by overproduction and low prices."

Spray’s soybeans are cleaned, bagged and sold for $21 a bushel to a company that makes tofu. Most farmers get about $5 a bushel for soybeans. His beef cattle bring a premium also because they are drug and hormone free.

"I’m not against modern technology, but I think a lot of it is unnecessary," he said. "It again goes back to the quality of the product."

The demand for new technology, though, is only increasing.

The ranchers in the West are testing electronic tags placed on animals’ ears as part of efforts to create a national cattle-tracking system to prevent outbreaks of mad cow disease.

Vegetable farmers are experimenting with an irrigation system that injects air bubbles into water, providing a better balance of water and air on the ground and creating better growing conditions.

It has increased crop yield by 15% to 30% and saves water, said David Zoldoske, director of the Center for Irrigation Technology at California State University in Fresno.

"We try to look at things in terms of water use efficiency," he said. "The more vegetables we can get out of a gallon of water, the better."

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