AGRICULTURE

Agri View: Technology and Agriculture

Dan Agri View, Technology

AGRICULTURE

Old tractors (McCormick and Deering in the foreground)
Imperial Valley’s farm equipment museum.  January 1997

Everett Griner talks about technology in today’s Agri View. If you believe that technology on the farm is a recent thing, think again. Everett lets us know some of the long history of technology in agriculture.

Technology. Today the word technology rings throughout the world of agriculture. We think of self steering tractors, or drones, to do things farmers couldn’t even think of a decade ago. If you think technology is a recent thing for agriculture, think again.

You see, it was back in 1890, over 100 years ago, when the first 2 row planters came along. This did a lot to change the way most farmers planted their crops. It was also about the time the term ‘horsepower’ become a true definition of farming. It took 40 to 50 hours and 5 acres of land to produce 100 bushels of wheat. Now all of this was considered ‘farm technology’ in its time.

So, remember, technology on the farm has been around just about as long as farmers.

That’s Agri View for today. I’m Everett Griner…

Image credit: Old tractors (McCormick and Deering in the foreground) at Imperial Valley Farm Equipment Museum.  January 1997/