A day on the farm
In June 2018 I participated in a teacher immersion program organized by U.S. Farmers & Ranchers Alliance. I got to hear talks from farmers and ranchers discussing topics related to farming and where our food comes from, such as sustainability, GMOs, organic agriculture, experimental farms, etc. At the time I was exclusively teaching physics and when I received the invitation in my inbox my only motivation to attend was the goodies they had promised. I didn't really know what to expect, but I'm so happy the perks motivated me to participate. I learned a lot, starting with the realization that agriculture is a vibrant, highly technological enterprise.
It was an eye-opening experience. We heard several talks. I'm not going to go into detail about the shared facts here. I'm only going to talk about a few moments that had a lasting impression on me. This opportunity exposed me to a whole new world and changed my mind. I learned something!
I can imagine that many people who have little experience with farming and ranching don't think of agriculture as a field where you get to apply technology and sophisticated tools of analysis. I was one of these people, and I was so wrong! Of course, I knew there are large agricultural machines that are engineered and constantly improved and you hear a lot about the continued development of genetically engineered crops, but I had never taken the time to learn and internalize how much farmers and ranchers rely on science to run their businesses.
We visited an experimental farm, a farm exclusively dedicated to agricultural research. You can think of it as a laboratory for agricultural research. I remember the experimental farmer sharing with us details about how they use scientific tools and data, analysis and forecasting tools to adjust their process, minimize the amount of pesticide they use and get the most out of their land. The farm had been separated into grids and each grid had sensors that measured moisture and soil nutrient content. The crop irrigation plan takes input from the weather forecast. "No farmer wants to use more fertilizer or pesticide than they need to. My family lives on the farm and my children play around the same crop you will have on your tables", added a family farmer.
The most impressive of the many pieces of farming equipment we saw was this mechanical seed drill that could sow a single seed at a time. As the seed prices have skyrocketed, farmers want to make sure every seed successfully turns into crop. The machine used two rotating disks to isolate single seeds and sow them into the ground one by one. Since then, whenever I teach rotation in physics I bring up this example. This entire experience was so in line with my philosophy that you never know when and where you will use something you have learned. There are a lot of fun YouTube videos demonstrating the ingenuity behind many pieces of modern equipment. Did you know, for example, that many farm implements are connected to computers, and use optimized software and GPS regularly? With single-seed sowing and GPS, there are farmers who know exactly where every seed has been sown and constantly use data to maximize productivity and minimize cost and environmental effects.
I was fascinated to hear a dairy farmer telling us that she receives text messages on her phone when there is trouble with the automated milking process. She told us all her cows are tagged and sensors continuously monitor the process. Cows line up to be milked and usually everything goes smoothly during robotic milking. The automated milking systems are connected to computers and when the cow elects to enter the milking unit, a sensor in the unit reads the identification tag on the cow. If the software detects anything out of order, the farmer might receive a text message reading: "Lucy needs your attention."
There was a common theme among the stories from all the speakers: there needs to be more public awareness about the technology-related jobs in the agricultural industry. Farmers and ranchers have a difficult time recruiting skilled workers as technical and innovation specialists. Although there are many universities offering specialized agricultural programs around the US, younger students seem to get little exposure to the possibilities in the agricultural industry. Many of the farmers I met had advanced degrees in agricultural sciences but the only reason they got interested in agriculture was that they were raised in an agricultural community. High schools in rural areas tend to provide agricultural programs but there is a general lack of exposure for students elsewhere. Like me, many high school students have never had the opportunity to be excited about agriculture maybe because very few teachers find agriculture “cool” enough to talk about it in class.
Ultimately, the best thing I got out of this experience was not the promised perks but a change in perspective. I got to see the interesting and inspiring side agriculture and now I can share it with my students no matter what subject I’m teaching. I can use examples of farm equipment when I teach rotation, I can talk about automated processes in agriculture in my robotics class and I can point to agricultural experiments when going over the scientific method.