Technology and farming

The times when farmers had to get up early in the morning every day and then work for fifteen hours or so just to make a living are over, because technology is here. With proper equipment farmers will have a much brighter and profitable future. I’m not saying that farming nowadays is not hard work; it is still one of the toughest professions. However if we look in the history of farming we can see that compared to now farming was a much harder job to do. Without equipment to help you around on the field or in the barn all you had is your own power. Technology helps in all kinds of farming, making it easier for big farmers to grow and small farmers to stay profitable with much less labor.

           For example wheat harvesting used to be a very hard process, which required farm workers to work long hours with scythes usually on a very hot day. Now wheat harvesting is a much easier process; farmers just have to drive a combiner around the field that does all three tasks: reaping, binding and threshing. Harvested wheat is put onto trucks and delivered to the bins and storage units. Wheat is then moved from the trucks into the storage units using motorized, rotating spiral shaft, known as auger. Bins and storage units are equipped with machinery to sort and move grain, as well as fans or fuel burners in order to dry wheat. Combiners can be used to harvest not only wheat, but many other types of crops. These machines make the process of harvesting much easier and efficient than if it were to be done by hand.
       Example above is one of the simpler uses of technology in farming. Some farmers use technology to do more complex tasks, which couldn't be accomplished without it. For example farmers, who possess any kind of livestock, use technology to do, what only machine can do. Blood test for pregnancy allows veterinarians to easily and accurately tell if the animal is pregnant and ultra sound determines the sex of the fetus, helping farmers make better culling decisions. Technology could be used to test milk from cows to check protein and fat levels, which would help determining a better ration. There are a lot of other uses, some of which make us wonder to how we got along without technology.

           One of the arguments used against using technology in farming is that it takes away jobs from people working in farms. While it is somewhat true, it also provides many other jobs and opportunities. All this equipment requires a lot of workforce: people who control, repair, produce and sell it. It advances us one step further in our constantly progressing world.

           Technology made farming easier and more efficient than ever. Long manual work days turned into automatic process. It created jobs in a field, which wasn't even related to farming. It advanced farming to a next level and it continues to progress leaving us wondering to what is next.

[http://www.fdlreporter.com/story/money/2014/10/25/technology-improves-quality-life-farm/17797597/]