Farming is not just growing food

Gary Krambeck/staff Chuck Fulk of Fulk Agri Services, Plattville, Mo., shows a computerized seed meter testing stand used in precision planting of seeds. The seed meter was among the many high-tech farming aids on display at a farm show here.

A hundred years ago, no one could imagine how the tractor, combine or three-point hitch would affect farming in the 20th Century.

Similar unknowns face farming and the farm-equipment business today as the industry explores such new ideas as genetically modified seeds and advances in biotechnology that stretch the imagination beyond the Brave New World.

Farming is not just for growing food any more.

Researchers are developing specific applications for vitamins, medicines and industrial products. A genetically altered cow produces antibodies in its milk for medicine to fight a strain of hepititis. Other raw materials are being developed to make paint, synthetic fibers or other products traditionally made from a petrochemical base.

Farmers and companies now form partnerships and alliances to advance the research and develop products and farm machinery that make their lives better.

The new technology provides a lot of benefit to the customer, said William Masterson, spokesman for the newly formed CNH Global, formed in late 1999 with the merger of Case Corp. and New Holland.

CNH Global and Moline-based Deere & Co. are among equipment makers developing field-monitoring sensors and other electronic-tracking equipment that measures the amount of seed needed at planting, and the amount of pesticides and herbicides needed in the growing season. Other sensors measure the amount of yield during harvesting.

Case now is moving into the next generation of sensory devices, Mr. Masterson said. The company announced last August it was developing a grain-quality monitor with Textron Corp. that would enable farmers to monitor certain characteristics of their grain during harvesting.

The sensory device will help farmers track corn with a higher oil content that could be sold at a premium, he said.

As more land is concentrated in fewer hands, growers also are looking for faster, more powerful equipment that will save time and improve profits, said Barry Nelson, public relations manager for Deere & Co.'s worldwide agriculture division.

Farm equipment makers are building faster machinery that will save time in the field and machinery that will handle better on the highway between field and farm.

Deere also is working with Stanford University to develop the satellite technology to create a tractor that does not need an operator, Mr. Nelson said.

Along these same lines, envision the day when the combine automatically adjusts to the crops it picks in the field or the tractor and its attachments that can be adjusted at the end of each row with the press of a button. The day is here.

The Internet will play a greater role in dispensing information between farm and factory. More programs will be available to help the farmer-operator collect and analyze data.

Equipment dealers also will field more inquiries and dispense service online. Dealers and manufacturers plan to use the Internet to track used equipment and sell new products and machines.

Manufacturers also must look outside the United States since the market for selling new tractors and combines is declining. CNH Global and Deere are expanding in Brazil, China and India. The two companies have had sales in the former Soviet Union and are negotiating new deals in Russia.

Global expansion is certainly necessary. Farm equipment sales peaked in the United States in 1973 when 197,000 tractors and 35,000 combines sold, according to the Equipment Manufacturers Institute of Chicago.

Last year, in the midst of a downturn in the farm economy, the major equipment makers cut production and reduced field inventory. About 139,684 tractors were sold in 1999, compared with 135,158 in 1998, a 3.3 percent increase, according to EMI data. However, only 5,462 combines were sold in 1999, compared with 10,367 in 1998, a 47.3 percent decrease, EMI said.