The Mechanical Farm of 2030

Abstract

After introducing influences which will affect mechanization of agriculture over the next 50 years, the review deals separately with three aspects of equipment on farms. These are machinery for arable farming, equipment used in livestock husbandry, and the hardware and software likely to assist farm management. The bulk of crop production is predicted to be carried out by a system of field gantries which will replace today's tractor and implements. The gantries will be fitted with automatic guidance but will still carry an operator who will be provided with extensive monitoring instrumentation. Second, monitoring of livestock growth or yield will be computer based. Health and breeding will also be automatically monitored and controlled, and farm staff will be aided by a robot, whose functions will include remote viewing and sensing, routine animal and feed handling operations, and assistance with animal herding. Computers will be used extensively in farm management with on-farm machines linked permanently to national information data banks, to suppliers and organizations who purchase from the farm and to consultant organizations. Computers will also be used for planning decisions based on operational research predictive methods and particularly for daily work planning.