2020 Spring Farm Outlook

2020 Logan County Farm Outlook LINCOLN DAILY NEWS March 19, 2020 Page 13 F ormer Democratic Presidential candidate and billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg suggested during a 2016 talk that farming requires less “gray matter” than modern technology jobs. “I could teach anybody, even people in this room, no offense intended, to be a farmer,” Bloomberg told the audience at the Distinguished Speakers Series at the University of Oxford Saïd Business School. “It’s a process. You dig a hole, you put a seed in, you put dirt on top, add water, up comes the corn.” This statement from Bloomberg was very naive, did not endear many farmers to his campaign, and reflects how little he knows about modern farming practices (perhaps that is the main reason for him being a “Former” Presidential candidate). Bloomberg - You Don’t Have a Clue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6mR_ bplYjc Farming has progressed from Bloomberg’s simple understanding of hole/seed/water to become one of the highest tech industries in the world today. The Oxford dictionary defines technology as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry; Farming is one of the highest tech industries in the world! By Jim Youngquist machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge; the branch of knowledge dealing with engineering or applied sciences. Farmers and the farming industry began to adapt technology to farming in the early 20th century. Careful observation of processes and needs has helped the ag industry produce incredible technology to enhance productivity. The principle is simple: grow more with less manual labor, less acreage and less time spent in the fields and with livestock. Mechanization on the Farm in the Early 20th Century https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SI9K8ZJqAwE As the world population grew, technological advances in transportation, storage, and processing allowed for larger crops to come to market and become food, and as a Continue 4