3-01-2012-times are a changing

       modern farming is changing all the time. the biggest improvement in years is computers and geographical  positioning system (gps) when it comes to producing just about everything in farming if there isn't an app there will soon be. a cows tag she wears around her neck is magnetic and at same time tells who she is , such as bossy101, her birth date and feed plan she is on . and maybe a general overall rating. as she walks up to a feeder her tag is attracted to a metal strip and information is read and transferred to a computer via wireless and an amount of feed with her ration amounts is sent back to the feeder in the field telling how much she is allowed to eat. as she grows and she is monitored for weight and other production figures. her ration is reevaluated by the farm manager from the comfort of his office while bossy is left standing out in the cold. don't worry about bossy though as the farmer i'm sure calculated enough energy in bossy's diet to get her through winter. 

       to plant a field nowadays a person calibrates his gps and grabs 4 wd gator and heads out into the field on a pre-planned course to sample all the problem areas of a field where poor production was observed before and will sample the soil. taking down specific information consistent with the gps settings . this enables the farmer when planting to feed this same gps information about soil types and soil needs into his planter and automatically adjust the planter to use more fertilizer or less depending on soil analysis. this allows the farmer to micromanage all his resources very efficiently. producing more corn or soybeans per acre with less fertilizer or herbicide. 

       then at harvesting time giant combines such as this monitor the production based on same gps figures to again gather information such as bushels per acre, and this again will affect next years planting. all at the touch of a button. the computer also monitors the threshing table and various parts of the combine to assure that everything is working correctly. kind of makes you feel sorry for the guy in the cab, pretty soon the computer will replace him to.

          this is a modern chicken growing facility. these buildings are around a 1000 ft long and close to 80 foot wide. the inside is climate controlled at around 70 degrees to enhance the growing characteristics of the chickens . if they are to cold they will eat to keep warm thus costing the producer  more money in feed to achieve same level of production. the same is true in reverse, if it is to hot then chickens wont eat and will soon perish so there is loss of production . they have micromanaged this whole operation down to the most finite detail to increase profits. they have over a half a million invested in just one barn. 

         again this barn is computer controlled and has built in redundancy in terms of a backup generator and also has the ability to call people in to service the building if any of the different monitors require action. if a feeder goes down or feed runs out , a person is automatically called. if a waterer is plugged and overflowing then a monitor will call someone in. it does everything but pick up dead chickens . in 10000 chickens per building , it is possible to have an average of 10 chickens die daily. carcasses need to be removed quickly. they have their own water system and it is monitored for quality as well. the floors are dirt floors and have sawdust placed in each barn prior to starting a brood of chickens . the area is confined and heaters are dropped to lowest levels so that boxes of young peeps are dumped onto the floor . constant monitoring is necessary in their early development to assure maximum survivability. after viewing several of these chicken houses and seeing  there operation . at best it is a marvel as to the american ingenuity , how far we have come. at the worst the chickens are afforded everything they want to eat and are on dirt floors allowed to socialize w/ others for what it is worth. but i am afraid to say that society would be a lot worse off if we didnt have these monster producing units we have now. 

          there is no way the mom and pop farmer could even begin to produce enough to feed our growing needs. although not popular with the animal rights activists , they do address major concerns of the animals they raise on the whole. we need these places unless we can figure out how to tame our population. just seems kind of ironic that the same computer that allows these barns to be successful is also the same on that an activist downloads his videos into and then uploads to the wonder of the internet. one hand feeds and the other takes it away. 

        i heard the latest they are working on is a synthetic protein grown in petri dishes in a lab to replace meat. this means you can kick scream yell , and do anything you want to the petri dish but never be brought up on charges or have to worry about johnny instant reporter taking one moment of a farmers life when he loses it and broadcast it all over the internet. this is where we are headed. the liability is less and returns are greater. your new meat can be grown in old factory buildings that used to house our failed auto industry. allowing the consumer to save money as now his protein will be right next door cooking away. oh boy i can smell the mc ribs now. just have to find a place to put the bones- what it doesnt have bones?