Unit 2, Lesson 5

Fully Automated

Egg production industry is so automated that usually no human touches eggs until consumer opens box; hens are housed in cages & as eggs are laid, slope of cages allows eggs to roll out onto conveyor belt that moves them through several inspection processes; eggs are run through mild disinfecting bath & then dried with cold air; small suction cups lift eggs from conveyor belt in rows & place them in cartons for shipping

Animals

Farm animals in this nation are treated far better than animals in any other nation; there are regulations on the amount of space, water, food, & health maintenance required for all animals; government officials monitor treatment of animals throughout production process, including at slaughter; thanks to efforts of many environmentalists & veterinarians, treatment of animals continues to improve

All the Upgrades

Modern farm tractors have many of the same accessories cars have, such as air-conditioning, stereo systems, & luxury seating Main technologies are in the operating systems tractors use to get optimum harvest & crop information; many new tractors use GPS to steer up & down fields without skipping any rows; drivers are still required to be in cab to control vehicles, but sensors on many tractors will cause vehicle to stop if something's in the way; by using GPS systems, farmers are able to farm in dense fog, pouring rain, & even in middle of night; in addition, sensors on many new tractors indicate where harvest level is lower in fields so farmer knows where to have soil tested

Delicate Balance

New farm technology helps to produce larger crops, but overproduction decreases crop prices; there's a delicate balance that farmers, ranchers, & producers must maintain every year; American consumers have access to most abundant food varieties in the world at lowest possible prices, but farmers have little to no control on prices for their crops As all the costs of food production are counted, realization may be that current production practices are no longer practical; importing of less expensive food may be immediate solution but even cost of imports can rise; government intervention could be useful if fair practices in agriculture is granted to all ranchers, farmers, & producers, but at this time that isn't likely

Nuts

Nut industry uses new tree-shaking machines to harvest nuts; these machines are tractors with long arm that grabs base of tree & uses high-power vibrations to shake it so that all nuts fall to ground; nuts are then raked into rows for harvester machine to scoop up nuts & load them into trucks; this saves time in fields so nuts are as fresh as possible when they head for packinghouse

Keeping it Clean

2002 US Farm Bill has very strict controls on groundwater contamination, waste removal, chemical usage, pollution emission levels, & water use; all farmers, ranchers, & producers must comply with these new rules; in order to get most out of every drop of water, many farmers are laser planning their fields to give them a gently sloping surface so water doesn't remain in one area but travels to all rows; contour farming uses natural curvature of earth's surface to protect ground from soil erosion; satellites are used to determine ground's slopes & curves; GPS system can detail field for tractor to follow For cattle, pig, dairy & poultry farmers, main environmental problems are related to contamination factors caused by too many animals being confined in one space; best way to protect environment & animals is to allow animals to graze on open land areas; ground naturally absorbs waste material from animals & there's little to no ground contamination; when animals are raised in close quarters & confined areas, problem with waste materials is difficult to solve; in years past, it was acceptable practice to just hose down waste matter out to "lagoon" of urine & fecal matter that would slowly seep into groundwater; this is no longer an option; now animal production farms must have state-of-the-art facilities to collect waste matter & treat it with standard sedimentation & bioremediation processes before wastewater has chance to pollute groundwater; while it won't be suitable for animals to drink, waste water may continue in filtration process & then be used on cover crops that aren't harvested for food

Tractors

Smithsonian Museum had exhibit of 10 most important inventions; #10 was microprocessor chip used to develop computers, but in 1st place was tractor Tractor seems like simple idea, but use of tractor for agriculture gave farmers ability to plow land more efficiently than with oxen & horses; tractor can work long hours & break up hardest ground; with tractors, farmers had capability to plant far more than they needed to feed their families; workload was reduced, allowing some family members to work in other industries Tractors of today are still backbone of farming in US; tractors have gone through as many evolutions as automobile & now they have to be environmentally friendly as well; prior to 1978, most states had no exhaust emission standards for tractors; air pollution levels in rural areas began to rival those in cities because of pollution produced by tractors & other farm equipment; burning of residue after harvesting crops also contributed to pollution; currently all states have policies on emission levels of all motorized farm equipment; California & other states have greatly restricted burning of crop residue to reduce carbon levels in atmosphere & improve air quality for surrounding residential communities

contour farming

following the natural curvature of the earth to prevent soil erosion

Which farm industry is the most electrically-automated?

the egg & dairy industry

Setting the Pace

When it comes to agriculture, US is powerhouse of production; US can produce more products from one acre of land than any other nation in world This is because modern equipment, integrated pest management, & a variety of new technologies help American farmers to be the most productive in the world There's high price to pay for all technologies & not all farmers can keep up with costs

grain elevator

buildings used for the storage & shipment of grains

Crop Farming

Growing large fields of one crop with no distinctive planting pattern How cereal grains are planted & harvested; these are main production crops of open plains in states such as Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, & Missouri; grains grow well there due to flat lands & predictable rainfall; cereal grain crops of corn, wheat, barley, oats, sorghum, & rice are harvested with giant combine tractor; this type of machine grabs & cuts plants while conveyors pull plants to top where grain is separated from straw in seconds; separated grain is forced out of spout & straw is either finely chopped or laid in rows behind combine; grain is separated from other materials through combine's many filtration stages & is ready to be delivered to grain storage facility called grain elevator; called elevators because grain is taken from trucks with several different pumping & auger systems, & is pushed all the way to top of storage facility & then dropped down to bottom; grain can stay in these facilities for up to a year; because cost of storage is so high, farmers usually have buyer for their grain before they even plant it

Row Farming

Growing method where plants are planted in equally-spaced rows Used for most fruit & vegetable crops; warm coastal states grow produce for which they're famous in long, perfectly spaced rows; costly method of farming because most row crops need many farm workers to care for produce or fruit in fields until it's ready for harvest; harvesting requires several farm workers to pick, trim, & pack produce or fruit into boxes; technology hasn't advanced enough to include tractors that can delicately pick ripe peach, cherry, strawberry, or perfect tomato, so farm workers will still be needed well into future; crops that are to be harvested & crushed for canning, like tomatoes for tomato sauces, can be harvested with machines, eliminating cost of some labor, but cost of fuel is still a problem

Hard Times

In 1980s, hundreds of American farms went bankrupt as farm loans began cycle of borrowing to improve production; but as farmers greatly improved their production, higher volume of crops produced slashed prices farmers received for their crops; often prices for bountiful harvest were so low that it was better for farmer to let crops rot in fields than take on expense of harvesting them; by 1990s, trade agreements allowed farmers to export far more crops to other nations & now fewer farmers are losing their farms; but ability to sell land at high prices is far more appealing than trying to secure profitable business future in farming From a farmer's perspective, there are many reasons to sell farmland; most farmers don't have corporate retirement plans, medical benefits, or union benefits if they become disabled; each farmer must decide what insurance to buy & how much to save for retirement; but farming is rarely as profitable as expected & most farmers reinvest any profits back into their farms; after lifetime of farming, few American farmers have made enough of profit to maintain same amount of land they own; many are forced to sell their land one piece at a time, until farms are too small to be profitable

Making Positive From Negative

Some facilities are turning water & gas waste from animals into source of electrical energy; many modern poultry facilities are using deadly methane gases that fecal matter emits to fuel steam engine generator that runs facilities; fecal matter of many animal production facilities can be fermented into raw chemical fuel that can power generators with economical electrical energy Egg & dairy industries are most electrically-automated producers of agricultural world; new milking machines milk cows faster & more efficiently; milk is automatically piped to cooling tank & kept cold until trucks take it to pasteurization & homogenization plant; pasteurization process heats up milk quickly to kill harmful bacteria & homogenization processes keep it from separating into cream; dairy cows eat high volumes of most expensive feed; they usually drink 10 gallons of water each day to produce high volumes of milk; this makes dairy industry one of most expensive industries to maintain

In a Nutshell

The cost of growing food is rising due to increased fuel, energy & labor costs, & the cost of new technology New environmental laws increased costs due to requirements for better waste removal & pollution controls It's far better for the animals & the environment to raise the animals in an open environment, where waste management is not concentrated & ground water is not polluted Although technology has helped the agricultural industry reduce workloads & increase production, skilled farm workers will still be a necessary part of labor costs In the past, many farmers lost their farms trying to be too productive; rather than lose the farm now, it is more common for the farmers to sell off the land before they are in financial hardship The cost of the new technology increases farm production, but if too much of a crop is produced by many farmers, the price for the crop is greatly reduced; in the agricultural industry overproduction is a negative factor in supply & demand economics

Two Main Types of Farming

Tractors can be adapted to obtain optimum harvest from many different crops, but some foods require hand picking Division of work force labor versus machines is summed up in the two main types of farming methods: crop farming & row farming