Date: Wed, 30 Aug 1995 20:11:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Tom Armstrong To: sanet-mg@amani.ces.ncsu.edu Subject: Re: High Tech and the Family Farm -Reply Mime-Version: 1.0

For the social aspects, precision farming is essentially no different than

> the housing and related technologies that made large-scale poultry and

> swine production possible, i.e., it may help to make the large-scale

> systems workable (in a context of cheap energy and social harmony). As

> such it can be expected to continue the trends toward the elimination of

> families in farming and decline of rural communities. Right now,

> precision farming technologies are very expensive and are not

> economically feasible for the average family farm. Those who will

> benefit from the technology will most likely be the suppliers of

> see no reason to believe that this would not lead to continued erosion of

> the social foundations of agriculture as I see little or no room for small

> and medium scale farm units in this technology.

> I am not yet convinced that public funds should be used to promote this

> technology as there should be a great deal of incentive for commercial....

I am a fourth generation family farmer. This is the first year I have not planted a crop since 1961. I farmed over 100 acres of CCOF Certified organic land since 1990 As an organic farmer I was required to keep specific records of inputs to each field. I found this very complex, my system was far from perfect. From what I have seen on the net so far GIS is the way to go.

From what I read in the farm magazines, software companies are charging a lot of money for these systems.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is possible for a failing family farmer such as myself with a very low budget for the ranch to download this system right off the net, for free.

I am holding out until I can scrounge a UNIX box for pennies on the $. We may never make wages, but at least we can farm hi-tech.

Tom Armstrong toma@crl.com Sequera Ranch s.1892 San Gregorio, CA Barnyard Technology--- Ideas for tomorrow -> from yesterday's scrap. 4th -> 5th gen. on family farm. Can Ag Sustain? A ghost town fights its way back. 1865 Nat'l Register Saloon... http://www.crl.com/~toma or try: http://www.crl.com/~toma/index.html