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Show 4 May, 1969 UTAH FARM BUREAU NEWS Thanks For Helping Us Look Ahead the American Farm Bureau Federation is celebrating its Golden Anniversary. VVe have spent some time looking backward and feel it's time to take a look at the future. To plan for the future we should know as nearly as possible the kind of agriculture we'll need to serve in the next 50 years. Leaders in industry, the Universities and government were asked to help us look ahead. Special thanks must go to the California Farm Bureau who did a great deal of work in assembling the information. We hope to be able to spend more time and space in coming issues in discussing this very interesting subject. THIS YEAR Century Twenty-Fir- st ; 2000 will run on four or six-whe- el drive or on pneumatic tracks. They will be powered by electric drive, fuel cells or efficient storage batteries. With the flick of a switch, the operator can see how his implements are performing on a television screen mounted in the cab. . Many machines will run without any operator at all. They may follow a field pattern stored on computer memory or be guided by wires buried tapes or by sensing devices in the field that guide a machine over patterned furrows. This driverless equipment would be observed on an electronic field map in the farm control center, much like radar follows a plane on a flight pattern. Farmers will do some jobs from the air, with equipment such as a combination helicopter-hovercraEngineers one have machine built that already lifts off the ground by low air pressure to spray cranberry bushes on rough grounds. In the year 2000, soil will be tilled in several ways. Power might be applied to each tillage unit of huge winglike machines, instead of being transferred through the tractor wheels. One swath would cover forty or fifty feet or more, keeping soil compaction at a minimum.The wings would fold back for travel and storage. It is possible that machines wont even work the soil directly they may fracture and condition it by ultrasonic waves instead. Another possibility is a factory machine that scoops up a ribbon of soil, conditions it, then lays the seed, fertilizer and chemicals in a perfectly prepared seed bed. Crops will be planted solid, or in equally spaced patterns to make maximum use of nutrients and water. Sheets of plastic may be placed between the rows to absorb heat for early germination and to reflect light that otherwise would be absorbed by the soil. The farmer of 2000 will still contend with Mother Natures whims, but he will lessen the sting. He will control water needs by irrigating more. Radio beams from a field control tower will y outlets signal receivers at water providing automatically as needed. He might lay asphalt or other material under the top two feet of soil to hold water better. And some of his crops will have leaves bred especially to cut down evaporation. In bad droughts, hell spray with chemicals that close the tiny leaf openings to reduce evaporation. He will fertilize much heavier than ... ... ft far-awa- today, with nutrients coated with chemicals so a gradual flow is released over the season, or perhaps over several seasons. Fertilizing may be done only once every three or four years. He also will fertilize the air with carbon dioxide. With extremely high yields, carbon dioxide becomes a limiting factor. Plant breeders will also reshape leaf canopies to catch and hold more carbon dioxide from the air. Insects and diseases will be spotted long before they gain a toehold. Space ships with sensing devices will circle the earth and report the condition of crops on a nationwide or even worldwide basis, according to the kind and amount of light the earth reflects. The idea is in experimental stages now. When an insect infestation is detected, a farmer will spray with ultra-lovolumes of powerful chemicals at a fraction of an ounce per acre. Then he may match good bugs against bad bugs, use invisible light ray traps and other forms of biological control. He will kill weeds with powerful chemicals, ultrasonic sound or perhaps radiation. Growth regulators will give him power to make crops grow, mature and die on command. These man-mad- e chemicals will have the same makeup as the natural hormones that regulate all plant growth. A farmer will harvest some of his crops using machines equipped with electronic eyes and computerized fingers the grandchildren of todays fabulous fruit and vegetable harvesters. These will pick, sort, and package crops right in the field. Other crops will be stripped by ultrasonic sound, then moved by vacuum air streams to a central processing plant. w Future Farm Structures One of the most astonishing sights on the farming horizon will be huge plastic or glass domes, sprawling over ten acres or more of high value crops. Light, water and nutrient uptake will be precisely controlled and plants will be protected from all pests. Photographic units in the dome will record minute plant growth, and a farmer will then dial the exact environment needed for maximum output. Many animals will live in the same kind of controlled surroundings. Some farmers will use buildings of a high-ris- e design. Feed and water storage will be lo- cated on the top floor with daily rations delivered automatically to each animal. Bulk feeds may be stored in a separate warehouse complex and moved by pneumatic tubes to the live stock buildings. Some structures will be built with plastic panels cast on the prefarm, or with other ultra-ligh- t, materials. packaged Animals will be fed by computer, based on cost of feed, past performance, season of the year and market predictions. Theyll be fed half a dozen times a day for maximum gain. Genetic formulas will unveil superior livestock by the year 2000 and a farmer will be able to call his shots precisely perhaps to the point of preordering the number of males and females from his breeding herd. Hell also perform such miracles as transplanting fertile eggs from superior cows into common incubator cows, where the embryos grow to birth. A superior mother could then spend all her time producing fertilized eggs. Instead of ten calves in her lifetime, a top cow may mother one thousand. Computer records and blood tests will show a farmer his best cattle, sheep, hogs or poultry. Hell use artificial insemination to sire producers as alike as peas in a pod. Today one steer puts on a pound of beef with ten pounds of feed. In the future, the gains will require half that amount of feed for the same gain. Today good growers market a broiler in eight weeks on nine pounds of food. By the year 2000, it will take only four pounds of feed and five weeks of time using highly purified rations readily converted to meat. A farmer will ship some of his pro-- , duce live, and he may process right on the farm. Poultrymen will clean eggs by ultrasonic waves and grade them by ultra-viollight. Dairymen will have g automatic equipment that milks cows and pipes the milk directly to processing without ever being touched by human hands. These exciting new breed, new , feeds, new seeds and new equipment point a magnificient panorama of the g giants of the year 2000. with are hope and promise They ripe for the entire world. But contrasted against this glittering picture of agriculture in the de et heat-sensin- food-producin- Impltmiul 3feir Util itwfll be pofuMe .v&- veloped nations, the future of less fortunate countries is jolting. In Pakistan today, wheat yields are as low as they were in England in the fifteenth century. Indias rice yields are no higher today than Japans were ten centuries ago. Without question, the most gripping problem of our times is the race for food. At worst, it will rock the world at its very axis. A starving man knows no God or country. Hungry people do not keep treaties. Neither will they keep their peace, nor stay within their boundaries. Solving the food race will require every ounce of resources the world can muster to feed the six billion people expected by the year 2000. The elaborate system of the year d 2000 will have to be by still other astounding production ideas, such as farming the seas with hybrid trout ranches fenced by sound waves. Or feeding human beings on algae the green lake scum that produces one hundred fifty times more food per acre than a bumper crop of soybeans. Or harvesting deserts made to bloom by irrigation. Or building vast microbe to raise rich proteins from oil, as we now raise beef from grass. Man is working on these and other ideas food-producin- g back-stoppe- es now. But for the foreseeable future, we must depend heavily on the astonishing system just outlined and the man who will make it run. He will be part economist, part agronomist, part chemist and part engineer. Hell have the savvy of a general, the ability to make tough and wise decisions. His success will be vital to all people. Ideas being born at Ford, and hundreds of other companies and universities around the world today, will provide the tools he needs to meet the futures huge demands for food. The challenge and opportunity in this exciting new era of agriculture are tremendous. All of the evidence compiled by Ford shows there is no need for hunger in the world of tomorrow. But we must gear immediately for the gigantic job ahead. by F rd VA. Trirtar and Imyltment OpwmUh fThe ' -- t ' fruit harvester of the future may, remove the fruit, by. uhraaoole then convey it to trailer whereit will be elertrouicallyaocted. and packed. The trailer, when full, will be lifted off and down to ) y t f |