Like most things, technology has meant changes for the world of agriculture
Above: Trent Murphree of Wylie Sprayer from Corpus Christi demonstrates the Ag Leader Insight computer system inside a Case Sprayer. One of the functions of the computer system is to help automatically steer the unit by plotting a course in the field.
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HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
1793: Cotton gin is invented
1797: Charles Newbold patents first cast-iron plow
1819: Jethro Wood patents iron plow with interchangeable parts
1830: Takes 250 to 300 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1834: John ...
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HISTORY OF AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY
1793: Cotton gin is invented
1797: Charles Newbold patents first cast-iron plow
1819: Jethro Wood patents iron plow with interchangeable parts
1830: Takes 250 to 300 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1834: John Lane begins manufacturing plows with steel saw blades
1837: John Deere and Leonard Andrus begin manufacturing steel plows
1842: First grain elevator goes up in Buffalo, N.Y.
1847: Irrigation begins in Utah
1850: Takes 75 to 80 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of corn
1856: Two-horse straddle-row cultivator is patented
1862-75: Change from hand power to horses creates first American agricultural revolution
1868: Steam tractors are first tested
1870s: Silos come into use
1884-90: Horse-drawn combine is used in Pacific coast wheat areas
1890: Takes 35 to 40 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of corn and 40 to 50 hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1910-15: Open-geared gas tractors come into extensive use
1915-20: Enclosed gears are developed for tractors
1918: Small, prairie-type combines with auxiliary engines are introduced
1920-40: Gradual increase in farm production results in expanded use of mechanized power
1926: Successful light tractor is developed
1930: Takes 15 to 20 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of corn and 15 to 20 hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1942: Spindle cottonpicker is produced commercially
1945: Takes 10 to 14 labor hours to produce 100 bushels of corn
1954: Number of tractors exceeds horses and mules on farms for the first time
1955: Takes six to 12 hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1965: Takes five labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat
1975: Takes three and three-fourths labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat and three and one-third hours to produce 100 bushels of corn
1987: Takes three labor hours to produce 100 bushels of wheat and two and three-fourths hours to produce 100 bushels of corn
Source: History of American Agriculture - Farm Machinery and Technology on About.com
John Morkovsky remembers a time when life on the farm was much different than it is today.
In the not-so-distant past, he and his family farmed with mules in Bexar County.
Putting up hay was a bit of a chore, he said, explaining the family gathered it up for a couple of weeks, loaded it into a wagon and took it to a pole set up to help them build hay stacks.
"Now, you just crank up a tractor and you can get a 1,200-pound round bale done in 15 minutes," said Morkovsky, 70. "It's amazing."
Technology has reared its digital-age head into everything from cellular phones to laptop computers and power windows in cars. But for those who think farm life is exempt from those advances, think again.
Farmers and ranchers reap their own benefits from advancing technology.
Agriculture's advances began with hand-powered machinery, power lifts and cushioned seats, said Morkovsky, who co-chaired the antique farm equipment display at the South Texas Farm and Ranch Show.
"Cushioned seats were big," he said.
The next major change came in the 1920s, he said, when Harry Ferguson developed the three-point hitch. The update meant implements for red tractors could go on to green ones and vice versa, he said.
The 1960s brought a major increase in horsepower, Morkovsky said, explaining the most powerful tractor up until then ran at 60 horsepower.
"In '20 it jumped to 90, then 125, 150, 225 and 450," he said. "With that came larger, wider equipment."
Although it depends which part of the country a person evaluates, Morkovsky said that, by 1980, tractors covered 30 feet in a swipe, rather than the original six.
Power and size aren't the industry's only changes. Machinery has gotten smarter through the years.
Global Positioning Systems were first introduced in the late 1990s and have become more accepted in the past three or four years, said Randy Wulf, sales manager for Trimble Navigation Limited's South Central region.
Although farmers must still be inside the machines, GPS systems allow the tractor or combine to know where it's supposed to go, Wulf said, adding that it cuts down on driver fatigue.
Such systems also cut down on operation costs - fuel and sprays, for instance - since they diminish drivers' overlap, said Todd Smith, territory sales representative for Outback South, a company operated by Hemisphere GPS.
Where a producer might have originally seen 10 to 15 percent overlap in spraying pesticides, GPS systems cut that to 1 percent, Smith said.
Many machines also come equipped with air conditioning, radios and CD players, but information-age advances aren't limited to those things tethered inside machinery.
Cell phones and laptop computers also enable producers to remain connected to the outside world, even while getting work done in the fields, said Kenny Duvall, a sales manager with Victoria Communication Services.
"Communication has become the way of the world," he said. "And that includes the farmer. If you're that guy that doesn't have it, you're going to fall behind."
Many rough-and-tumble cell phones come equipped to withstand rain and bumps and other sorts of abuse, Duvall added.
Victoria Communication Services also has customers who check their cattle prices or the weather from their phones, said Lynda Parma, who works in marketing for the company.
"They know what's going on around them," she said.
Agriculture may have changed over time, but it's nothing that happened overnight, said Vernon Waida, whose family also farmed with mules when he was a child.
"It was gradual," said Waida, who co-chaired the antique farm equipment area with Morkovsky. "It's difficult to think back to how things have changed, because you just adapted at every level. It's natural."
And, as for Morkovsky, there's no doubt things are different from what they were when he farmed at his childhood home. Today, although he lives in Victoria County, he ranches in Wilson and DeWitt counties.
But don't expect him to make it out there to check up on his old farm. It's no longer there.
The land he plowed is now under water, better known as Calaveras Lake.
"I can't go home," he said with a smile and a shrug. "Not unless I get some scuba gear."
