In a message dated 12/13/98 11:06:44 PM Central Standard Time, spike66@ibm.net writes:
>
> someone said they were to visit california and asked what they should go
see.
>
> well, there are plenty of tech museums and that that kinda stuff, but the
> biggest
> emotional impact for me is something that one might never see advertised on
> a tourist info: the farmland of californias central valley. one can get on
> interstate 5 and drive down thru there as fast as you dare go, and on
either
> side of the freeway, as far as the eye can see, is farmland, growing
> everything
> imaginable, and it goes on for hoooours that way, hunnndreds of kilometers.
>
> that blew my mind when i saw it. one gets the impression that there is
> enough
> food being grown between san jose and la to feed the world. i see why
> farmers
> are having a tough go of it: waaay too much land being cultivated. spike
>
>
>
you haven't seen the smallest part of it.
As many may know ....I'm a trucker. I haul mostly equipment. Farm equipment. Right now I have on a Combine and a tractor. A moderately large combine. It's twelve foot wide WITHOUT the "header".
California is one of my primary delivery points. I've been all thru it. It's primary claim to fame is multiple growing seasons. NOT the size of it's fields. Kansas...now Kansas has some large fields. As do all the other plains states. Miles on a side. The misnamed "midwest" has really nice farm land too.
The problem the farmers are having vis a vis the price paid for crops is (as is true of almost every problem) due to government meddling in the economy. The supply and demand feedback loops have been diddled and the indicators are screwy. Hence malinvestment.
Hate to tell you guys...but farm Mechanization is pretty well established. It's a billion dollar (at least) industry. I know some farmers who synchronize planting, tillage,fertilizing and harvesting with GPS and databases...
The problem had been pattern recognition. How to determine a weed or a pest or a product.. Now with microprocessors and advanced software I foresee the day when there will no longer be a need for stoop labor.
EvMick