One of the major thrusts behind every column I write for DTN is to follow their guiding principle of helping readers make smarter business decisions and thus make more money.  There is a lot to that especially when you concentrate on Canadian agricultural policy and agricultural marketing.  However sometimes I think it’s the decisions we don’t make on our farms that often cause us less angst in the pocketbook.

As many of you know I write all the farm machinery reviews for Country Guide magazine in Canada.  So that means that I get to research all the latest in machinery features over a myriad of farm equipment.  For example last year I reviewed the largest class nine combine in the world, the Lexion 595R.  A week or so later and I got a call from New Holland telling me that they had just come out with their new 522 hp combine.   So it is a moving target, our farm machinery world, changing all the time.

I also write for Heritage Iron magazine out of Illinois featuring farm equipment between 1960 and 1985.  So as you can imagine it is the equipment of my childhood and my youth.  For instance I recently featured the new John Deere 4020 tractor and what it meant to the farm community at the time.  I even had a picture of yours truly sitting on the tractor seat when I was about five years old.

The biggest differences in farm machinery between today and the heritage era is scale and electronics.    Everything is bigger now and the electronics and computerization within our farm equipment is extensive.  In many ways you need your computer science degree instead of your mechanic certificate to solve some of the high tech problems in today’s farm equipment.

And that is the problem!  When it comes to agricultural technology it is almost always a good thing.  I have my arguments with new agricultural biotechnology because it seems our corporate interests are benefiting more than farmers themselves.  However you have heard that from me before and I’m not re-visiting that.   The problem with “computer science “in our farm equipment is it is gone too far.

I have written once about this before and I got an e-mail from a farmer in Minnesota.  He had just bought a brand-new tractor for spring planting.  He said it quit, completely dead in the middle of a busy intersection in Minnesota and there he was.  At the end of the day there was a problem with the software in the control module of his tractor.  Nothing else was wrong except he was “dead in the water “on a busy spring day in the middle of an intersection and he couldn’t do a thing about it.

The point being all of us in farm country have nursed a piece of equipment like a combine a few more hours to get to an end of a harvest day.  This might involve managing mechanical problems to maximize daylight hours. However,  when software is involved most of us get shot right down.

I bought a new tractor three years ago. It is the tractor I create my crop with.  It plants my corn, sprays everything and creates an environment for me to thrive.  The only problem is it’s computer screen keeps lighting up and beeping telling me to call my dealer.  After four years of trying, tweaking software and downloading new software it keeps telling me to call the dealer and it won’t shut off.  It’s only my example of how new computerized technology on farm equipment doesn’t make any sense.

The point is this. I use and I review as a commentator a lot of wonderful farm equipment.    Increasingly, there is computerized technology embedded in it.  The problem I see is in the grimy, vibrating and moisture laden environment this equipment finds itself in, putting computer chips and software embedded within it is a prescription for many costly troubles ahead.  Will it work in 5-10 years from now?  Good luck.

I see real problems with design.  Just because you can replace a lever or a switch with a computer chip or a menu driven computer monitor on a piece of equipment doesn’t mean you should.  Farmers are crying out for equipment which is designed and based on how they would use it,  not like some software engineer can understand.

The problem as I see it is long-term increased costs for farmers to maintain equipment and mounting frustration for instance from a tractor console which resembles a rocket ship.  I know in my own case with my tractor telling me to call the dealer it will never end and a certain point it’s going to be my problem.

However, this is not about my problem.  The issue is about using high tech computerized technology in grimy, dusty and dirty environments where its half-life will be very short.  Of course we also have to worry about those varmint rodents and raccoons chewing up the wires like never before.

The key for farmers to make more money and to keep those future repair costs down is to utilize high-tech technology embedded within our farm equipment, which makes long term sense.  As it is now in my opinion the software engineers have overshot their mark in the farm equipment business.  As the elements take their toll fixing their problems will surely our increased long-term fixed cost.  Let me say it again in agriculture it’s not about technology, it’s all about yield.  What we need are simple machinery technologies to enhance our bottom line.  Bring back a few levers and linkages wouldn’t be so bad.