Page 63 - The GSE Report March-April 2018

FARM CREDIT SYSTEM / FARMER MAC MJARN.U-ARPYR.20210818
“Robotic milkers and animal handling robots are the two fastest growing areas of robots in agriculture,” said Dr. Lowell Catlett, a retired regents professor and dean emeritus from New Mexico State University. “Computer capacity, for all intents and purposes, is infinite. We’re literally blowing the doors off of robotics. Their speed and capacity is infinite. Commercial small-scale drones are available for less than $1000 and can carry up to 5-pound payloads for up to six miles.”
“As the speed and capacity of computers continues to increase, the ability to gather and use information on all aspects of production agriculture will explode,” added Catlett. “The value of knowing when, where, how and all aspects of the life of either a crop or an animal will exceed the actual value of the product itself. The information revolution ties global and local producers and consumers together in ways not possible just a decade ago. Get ready for a data revolution – the likes of which we’ve never seen before.” Revolutionary technology in farming is delivering a new era of digital farming.
The farm industry is facing a crisis in attracting labor to harvest crops and attracting younger generation to enter farming. The farming community hopes that technology advances will not only serve an important role in harvesting, but also help attract a new generation enter farming, which is critical. Today, the average age of a farmer is 58.3 with more than 60% of farmers over the
age of 50, according to the latest USDA farming census. (Chief Executive, C.J. Prince, 04/24/18; Disruption Autonomous Vehicle 50 Report, Disruptionhub.com, February 2018; Associated Press, Ryan Nakashima, 04/13/18; CBS News, 04/24/18; Forbes, Rumi Contractor, 04/24/18; New Zeland Farmer.com, 04/24/18; AgPro, JoAnn Alumbaugh, 03/26/18; Information Age, Alan Bullion, 04/06/18; Techopedia.com, Justin Stoltzfus, 03/26/18; CBS News, Errol Barnett and Duncan McKenna Keener, 04/28/18)
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