When you think of farming, you probably think of tractors, bibbed overalls, muddy feed lots and endless toil for the food producers.
That’s no longer the case in family farms and agricultural businesses throughout the country. Farming now has become a high-tech operation with all the electronic gadgetry that you’d expect to find in practically any office building.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture survey, conducted by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 70 percent of U.S. farms are connected to the Internet.
“Farmers are finding that computer use and Internet access helps them in variety of ways, everything from obtaining marketing information to finding venders for replacement parts for their broken farm equipment,” explained David Richmond, West Virginia University extension agent for Raleigh and Summers counties.
In the Mountain State, some common uses for computers on the farm range from balancing feed rations to controlling environments in poultry houses and dairy barns.
Computers also are being used in ultra-sounding livestock procedures to measure rib-eye area and back-fat thickness; Richmond pointed out.
Still other uses include pulling farm management records together and running production scenarios.
“In the near future, computers may be as common in the field as the tractor itself,” Richmond added. “With the current demand on farmers to increase production, more precision and money saving avenues and techniques must be applied.
“The computer is one of the best management tools available to farmers in America.”
In other comments, Richmond explained that a variety of electronic gadgetry currently is being used on farms in Southern West Virginia.
One example, he noted, is the use of the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for applying fertilizer to farm fields in the Greenbrier Valley.
“With the GPS technology, the farms are placed on a computer grid system, showing the exact location and soil nutrient levels,” noted Richmond.
“As the spreader trucks pass from one grid area to another, the amount of fertilizer is adjusted automatically according to information of the GPS.”
These newfangled techniques and procedures are saving farmers money that can be spent on other requirements for the farm, according to the county agent.
And the money saved could be applied toward the purchase of a laptop computer, a handy investment which could be used in managing feed rations for livestock and estimating nutrient requirements for the various cropping systems in use today, Richmond pointed out.
“It used to be that the only professionals who used laptops were CEO’s making cross country flights on 747’s,” he explained.
“Now, you can find several farmers and other agricultural producers who are using the same technology.
“Computers and laptops are no longer reserved for the high-rise office building.
“With today’s competitive markets and increases in production costs, the agricultural producers must take advantage of all available technology—not only to compete in the hi-tech world of farming, but also to survive in an increasingly electronic-dependent society where obtaining information quickly can mean the difference between profit and loss.’’
—
Top o’ the morning!