—Lancaster Farming. Saturday. Mr.y 25.1968
8
Good Morning
(Continued from Page 12)
house would be used to plug In
communications to a third gen
eration computer. Nor is it like
ly that today’s farmer, even five
years ago. suspected the very
nature of his occupation would
be radically changed by the in
troduction of sophisticated com
puter systems. 'But it was.
U.S. farming has changed.
Since the end of World War 11,
the number of farms has de
clined from 5.9 million to 3.3
million—well over 40 percent—
while output soared.
Today, U.S. farms with sales
over s4o,ooo—the so called big
farms—produce about 40 percent
oi all agricultural output. And
those big farms represent only
1 out of every 25 registered
farms.
Farming is big business—and
sophisticated. For example, a
recent IBM Agricultural Sym
posium in San Jose, Calif, cov
ered such diverse subjects as
automated sensing, computer
control of farm machinery of
the future, decision making and
simulation applied to a Califor
nia range-feedlot operation: as
well as. linear programming,
mathematical models, budget
ing, and EDP management
Farm Management
“Applications of computers in
soh mg farm management prob
lems may proie to be the most
significant technological devel
opment in agriculture during the
next 15 years,’’ says L S Fife,
International Harvester econo
mist.
Many of these innovations
ba\e already been designed to
give the farmer a working man
agement information system
With these contemporary man
agement controls and procedur
es farmers can manage their
farms as the big businesses they
are, and as a result, increase
crop and livestock production.
Accurate farm records are es
sential in meeting federal in
come tax regulations With ac
curate records the farmer can
analyze sound and weak points
in his business and adjust his ef
forts accordingly Universities
ha\ e played a significant role in
developing farm record systems
using computers The Michigan
State TEL-FARM project was
one of the pioneers in this area
Farmers using the TEL-FARM
system choose up to eight confi
dential summaries from data
they feed the computer The
summaries include such things
as quarterly and annual financi
al data on all farm income and
expenses, repoits on loans and
credit ratings, a net worth state
ment and many more valuable
management data Local banks
al 1 over the country are begin
ning to offer similar manage
ment systems to farmers —REC-
CHEK and PAM (Personal Ac
counting Management) for ex
ample
Wendell A Clithero of IBM
+old the 14th National Agricul
tural credit conference of the
American Bankers Assn that
there are over 10,000 farmers
now using electronic data proc
essing in the processing of their
farm records and farm analysis
In addition to citing the Greely
National Bank’s work in feed in
ventory Mr Clithero pointed to
Wachoua Bank and Trust Com
pany of North Carolina as an ex
ample of computerized farmiec
oid keeping and analysis
Wachoua B & T manages
f'im pioperty accounts totaling
about 00 000 aues of lard They
rho manage one feedei pig op
eifu.on with 200 sous and one
tiUS'" account that has appiou
mately 50 commercial brood
cows. These accounts are han
dled on computers just as any
other bank operation—however
bookkeeping-coding has been re
defined to take into account spe
cial farm needs.
Harvesting the Crops
Even Newton would be amaz
ed to see how the apples are be
ing shaken from the trees these
days. At Rutgers University's
'Department of Agricultural En
gineering, a computer is being
used to find out how much force
is needed to shake ripe fruit
from trees while leaving the un
ripe ones on the branches. Pres
ent automated fruit harvesting
methods, such as ultrasonic and
mechanical tree shaking and air
blasting, do not accurately con
trol the amount of force neces
sary. The Rutgers’ researchers
are employing a small analog
computer, to simulate fruit trees
and to learn their reactions to
varying forces.
The computer amplifies sig
nals from gauges placed on an
actual fruit tree and then lec
ords the signals on tape. Next,
it analyzes the data from which
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(Continued from Page 2)
CALVES 298 - Vcalers $l-2
lower.
VEALERS - Good 39.50-42.50.
few Choice 42.50-44; Standard
38 50-41; Utility 36-39: Cull 90-
115 lbs. 29-35.50. few 70-90 lbs,
26-31.
HOGS 353-Barrows and gilts
steady to 50c lower.
BARROWS & GILTS-US 1-2
200-230 lbs. 20.75-21; US 1, 215-
235 lbs. 21.10-21.50; US 1-3 190-
240 lbs. 20.25-20.75.
SHEEP 46 - Slaughter lambs
and slaughter ewes steady.
SPRING LAMBS - Choice 60-
100 lbs., 31.50-34.50, few head 35-
35.50; Good 28-31.
SLAUGHTER EWES - Utility
and Good $B-10.
In the Hog sale last Saturday,
May 18. 523 head were sold. 180-
200 lbs.. 19-21.25; 200-220 lbs.,
20.25-21.85; 220-240 lbs., 19.75-21;
240 lbs. up. 17.75-20.75; Sows
12 25-15 75.
equations are derived’ profiling
the tree These are placed in the
computer for mathematical com
putation of the varying amounts
of force necessary to apply to
the tree.
(Continued Next Week)
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