The Evolution of Farming Technology

Calvin Daniels

Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Key points from this story:

• Farm sizes have grown significantly since 1960s
• Modern machinery dwarfs equipment of the past
• Autonomous technology revolutionizes farming operations
• Seeding equipment now spans up to 100 feet
• Million-dollar combines feature self-driving capabilities
• Drones and high-clearance sprayers transform field work

Few things bring the passage of time more into focus than the scale of today's farming. This journalist is at that stage where the hair I have remaining on my head is white, so I have a few years experience on my resume but some 60-plus years still does not seem like that long, but the farming of my youth is like some bucolic fairy tale of old while today it's more something Isaac Asimov might have created for a sci-fi novel.