By Dan Kunz
I sometimes joke with my two sons about how easy they have it when it comes to the current role that technology plays in their lives. Within an instant, a phone, tablet or laptop can be opened, directions given, a question answered or a schematic or part number researched.
I can still remember prepping for a college research paper by scrolling through the card file index, finding a source and then reviewing endless hard-copy journals just to find the one article that I needed. Handwritten notes and thoughts were then tediously entered into a word processor to complete the paper. Today those thoughts are instantly typed into a computer, the entry spell-checked and grammatical suggestions made. Technology has opened a whole new conduit for learning and information sharing.
Recently, I read a story about a pro football player named Jason Brown. In 2012, Jason was the highest-paid center in the NFL and at age 27 he left football. His departure was not due to injury or lack of interest in the game. It was to pursue a new career as a farmer.
I was not only impressed by the reason that he left the NFL and the road that he took, but “how” he learned to farm. You might not believe me when I tell you that up until that time, Jason had never farmed a day in his life. In one of his interviews, he was asked how he did it and his reply was “YouTube and the Internet.” Some readers might scoff at his reply, but I didn’t. Jason had a passion, a goal and a vision to get there and technology and a social media platform led the way. This technology helped his dream become a reality.
Back in June, while working on the throttle linkage of an old John Deere 1020, my son asked if I had taken a picture of the linkage before we removed it. “Nope,” I replied and much to my chagrin, a 10-minute job turned into a two-and-a-half-hour ordeal laced with a bloodied knuckle, smashed finger and a few obscenities that still float in the air above our farm.
How many of you carry a smartphone in your pocket throughout the day? I’m willing to bet more than a few. Have you used this little tool to look up a part number to help get a repair completed? Have you ordered seed and fertilizer, called the insurance man or accountant from the back 40? This small piece of technology has all but replaced the alarm clock, calculator, camera, atlases and maps. When I was growing up the thought of FaceTiming someone on a cell phone was just a fantasy, but now its commonplace.
It’s hard to believe what we can now use a drone to identify and treat an outbreak of armyworms in the middle of an otherwise inaccessible field. Artificial intelligence (though I’m still leery) can identify disease and nutrient deficiencies in our crops and assist in making treatment recommendations in minutes, not days. Spot treatments made by drones not only save time and money but can help lessen possible impacts on the environment. We use GPS to survey and map our pastures, woodlots and crop fields. Up-to-date weather forecasts are now available instantly. Those old tractors, far removed from the new guidance programming on new models, can now be retrofitted with auto-steer systems. The list goes on and on.
In closing, I challenge you to check out some of these advancements and give them a try. I can’t guarantee that it will help fix all your problems, but it might just help reduce the “I told you so” looks during your next tractor repair.
Don’t forget to check out that article and video on Jason Brown and see how he grew his farm, with hard work, sweat and tears and yes … some new tricks too: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/former-football-player-turns-to-farming/ and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-nfl-player-farms-for-good/.
(Dan Kunz is the district program administrator for the Stark County Soil and Water Conservation District. His family raises Dairy goats, pigs and cattle on their small farm in Alliance.)
