Sorry, Faye, but things do change from years ago. Heck, I remember, when plowing a field, reaching behind me and pulling a rope to release the 3-blade plow. Our neighbor had an old tractor, I believe it was a Farmall, that had to be cranked from the front to start it. A farmer friend of mine, that graduated high school a year after I did, got rid of all of the livestock his dad had on their farm and only done crops. He invested into a rather large chemical sprayer that was driven, not pulled with a tractor.
Today in ranching, I read, and seen a picture of, a rancher using a helicopter to check his herd of cattle with and another rancher using a Polaris to work a ranch. A lot of ranching now is done with hydraulic equipment. Just the way it is.
IOW, in many parts of America, computers are part of farming and ranching today. There is still lots of labor involved, but software programs for breeding, crops, etc. are also used.
Oh yes, I am aware of all the latest technology used in ranching. I see it every day. While we still have ranchers that use horses for roundup and rope and drag hot iron branding, we also have those that use ATVs for roundup, squeeze chutes, calf tables, and ear tags and freeze branding.
My lament was about ranch land being sold and divided up into small acreages.
I am headed out for my walk on hayfield road and along an irrigation ditch. The end pivot sprinklers on the alfalfa field are all automated and last year, the owner installed a device so he can reprogram it or stop it in case of a problem, using his cell phone. He never has to leave his house.
When he dies, his kids will sell off his ranch and it will become half acre plots and be incorporated into the city limits. That is what makes me sad.
Yep, I know all about those old, single, double, and triple share plows, raised and lowered by pulling a rope that let a lever run on a cam. We had a double share manual cam drop that I used for smaller jobs, but for doing the 80 acres alfalfa hayfield, I used the 5 share with hydraulics and the International with a turbo shift transmission. That was in the 1960s. Now days tractors have all kind of electronics for everything you can imagine.
We have two companies that have several helicopters they use for spraying, checking livestock, rounding up wild horses, mapping, checking irrigation, predator hunting, etc.
Talking about computers playing a big role in todays farming and ranching, our local Agricultural Extension Station, has a robot driven tractor that they control with their computers. Even ranchers that use older methods, still use computers to track markets, order supplies, do all their bookkeeping, keep records on livestock. track weather patterns, and you name it, they can do it. It goes beyond just software programs, ranchers have direct online connections to all kind of resources.
Here is what I see on my daily walk.
P.S. Watching pro bull riding and just saw one of the US Border Patrol, IE a bull fighter, get launched over 15 feet in the air. He wasn't badly hurt even though he landed on his tailbone. I think he knows what "playing with the bull and getting the horns" means.
for her crafts and taxidermy.
