2017 Fall Farm Outlook

2017 Logan County Fall Farm Outlook Magazine LINCOLN DAILY NEWS Oct. 25, 2017 Page 31 producers are researching and investing in new ways to bring in their crops with more mechanization and fewer employees. An article in Forbes magazine said that robots were going to replace employees on the farm in the near future. The article said that agricultural concerns can’t wait 10 years to resolve this problem with automation. They need a fix in the next two to three years. Companies like Tesla are moving ahead with designs for the next generation of vehicles that are driverless, and are planning on bringing out electric trucks that will drive themselves. Systems like RTK continue to develop combines and tractors that “almost” drive and operate themselves, but still require an operator to be in the cabin to reposition at the end of each row. Case IH has developed a self-driving tractor that they call the “Terminator” of the agricultural world, which doesn’t even have a cabin for a human operator. The Terminator is programmed by using a tablet such as an iPad. While it is not yet available, NASA says that with continuing developments in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, in years to come self-driving tractors and combines will be commonplace. In the meantime, farmers like John Bruntjen work through the annual problems of trying to hire a fleet of workers to bring his crop in. “You can never pay a good employee too much,” Bruntjen said.