Agricultural Machinery

Agricultural machinery in the most general sense refers to the tools, both simple and complex, used by farmers to make the work of planting, growing, and harvesting crops more efficient and less labor-intensive. Some of this machinery consists of basic implements that have been wielded by hand for thousands of years, while other machinery takes the form of computer operated vehicles that are capable of performing intricate operations that otherwise would require many hours of work from a large team of agricultural laborers. The trend in agriculture is toward a greater reliance on technology to reduce the physical effort required by farming, and to make the work more profitable by reducing waste and expense through the use of greater precision in tilling, planting, weeding, and harvesting.

Brief History

Agriculture has a history as long and rich as that of human civilization. Throughout that history, people have sought to make the work of agriculture easier by inventing tools and then combining those tools into more complex machines. Each part of the process of farming has taken advantage of technological innovation, from tilling the soil in preparation for planting seeds, to the creation of devices that make it possible to deposit seeds at regular intervals and at specific depths in the ground, to sophisticated systems for the irrigation of crops and the distribution of pesticides. Harvesting crops now uses huge pieces of machinery that are able to delicately extract the desirable part of a plant from the husk in which it has grown, discarding the latter and retaining the former (Halsted et al., 2015).

During the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution brought about many changes in agricultural machinery. Previously, farmers used hand tools such as hoes and plows to work the land, making furrows in which seeds could be planted. At harvest time, crops were cut down with scythes and gathered into bundles. In many regions, the entire town would participate in harvesting, with men doing the physically intense work of cutting and women and children following along behind, gathering the cut crops into sheafs, which they then propped up in the field in order to dry them out. Agricultural machinery has transformed such tasks.

The arrival of steam engines and combustion engines meant that tractors could be powered by chemical energy rather than muscle power (human or animal). For example, a large farm covering many square acres might take days to plow by hand if a traditional ox-drawn plow were used, but a modern tractor can do the work in a matter of hours (Ramsower, 2014). As in other areas of life, the introduction of engine power to agriculture provided the impetus for still more advances. Once people saw how much could be accomplished, and in how much less time, with machines for sowing and harvesting, they began to imagine other types of innovation that could be introduced, including irrigation, weeding, and pest control machinery (Kutz, 2013). Many farmers now use vast, rolling irrigation lattices to pass over their fields at scheduled intervals, distributing water and pesticide as needed (Thistlethwaite, 2012).

Overview

The agricultural machines used in today’s most sophisticated farming operations are not so much single-function contraptions as miniature, mobile agribusiness factories performing a host of interrelated operations as they glide through the fields. Depending on the type of crop, a harvester can do much more than simply scoop up the land’s bounty; it can separate the seeds from the husks, grind the husks into small pieces, and then return the ground husks to the earth where they will become natural fertilizer during the decomposition process. A harvester gathering hay can cut the plants from their stalks, compress them into large bundles, and then bind these bundles with cords or plastic sheeting, leaving a trail of them in the machine’s wake as it passes over the field (Kay, Edwards & Duffy, 2012).

Modern reliance on agricultural machinery has resulted in the loss of many skills and traditions that were part of farming in the past. Critics of mechanized agriculture are especially concerned with large scale farming operations conducted by corporations rather than individuals. Corporate agribusiness has crowded out many small family owned farms because corporations have greater access to financial capital of the sort needed to purchase agricultural equipment. The farming equipment used by corporate farms allows them to operate more efficiently, thus increasing their already considerable economic advantage over small scale farming operations. Agribusiness proponents respond to these criticisms by pointing out that they are simply meeting the marketplace’s demand for agricultural products by using the most effective and efficient means at their disposal, and that their work is needed to ensure that the global food supply continues to grow quickly enough to meet the needs of the planet’s ever-increasing population (Chaline, 2012).

There are several new areas of technological development that are expected to have a major impact on agriculture, as they are incorporated into existing machines and used to develop new devices. For example, tractors and other pieces of equipment can be fitted with GPS (global positioning system) sensors to make it possible for the machines to navigate themselves as they perform their tasks, in the same way that self-driving cars are beginning to appear on the nation’s roadways. Advances in solar power and wind power are causing these forms of energy to become more available on farms, and equipment manufacturers are exploring ways to use these sources of clean energy to power agricultural machinery, in a trend sometimes known as "clean farming." Another growth area related to agricultural machinery is that of environmental sensors. Instead of sensing geographic position like GPS sensors, these devices collect and report information about different environmental factors in their immediate vicinity, such as temperature, humidity, soil salinity, and pesticide levels. An array of these sensors can be distributed around a farm so as to cover the entire property and used to transmit information to a central processing station (Winder, 2012). There, a computer can organize the data and present a dashboard to the farmer, showing what parts of the farm need various types of treatment; the north section might need additional moisture, while the southeast corner might require less.

Bibliography

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"The Future of Agriculture Machines." Modern Tire Dealer, 10 Sept. 2024, www.moderntiredealer.com/commercial-business/article/55138767/the-future-of-agricultural-machinery. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Halsted, Byron D., James H. Stephenson, Fred D. Crawshaw, and E. W. Lehmann. Ultimate Guide to Farm Mechanics: A Practical How-to Guide for the Farmer. New York: Skyhorse, 2015. Print.

Kay, Ronald D., William M. Edwards, and Patricia A. Duffy. Farm Management. New York: McGraw, 2012. Print.

Kutz, Myer. Handbook of Farm, Dairy, and Food Machinery Engineering. Amsterdam: Academic P, 2013. Print.

Lessiter, Mike and Frank Lessiter. "Fifty-Five Years of Advancements in Farm Equipment." Farm Equipment, 27 Sept. 2023, www.farm-equipment.com/articles/21786-55-years-of-advancements-in-farm-equipment. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.

Ramsower, Harry C. Handy Farm Equipment and How to Use It. New York: Skyhorse, 2014. Print.

Thistlethwaite, Rebecca. Farms with a Future: Creating and Growing a Sustainable Farm Business. White River Junction: Chelsea Green, 2012. Print.

Winder, Gordon M. The American Reaper: Harvesting Networks and Technology, 1830-1910. Farnham: Ashgate, 2012. Print.

Zhang, Qin. Agricultural Automation: Fundamentals and Practices. Boca Raton: CRC, 2013. Print.