Juicebox Vox millennial Aaron Rupar:
You know what’s beyond parody? Some juicebox Vox millennial has never heard of tractors using the Internet, so he proclaims the notion “bizarre” based on his vast wealth of agricultural expertise. Meanwhile, it’s not bizarre at all.
[UPDATE: Auto-play video removed; click link to watch it.]
More:
Besides being able to drive themselves, tractors now-a-days have internet capability, which allows them to send data directly to the farmer.
“They can see all of their data almost in real-time,” Dorsey said. “They can see where the machine is located and how much fuel they’ve used, how hard their machines are working and how much cotton they’re pulling out of the field,” he added.
. . . .
“The landscape of agriculture has changed,” Dorsey said. “There are less people farming but they’re farming more acres so because of that you have to have bigger machines that can hold bigger pieces of equipment and can cover more ground,” he said.
The future of these monster-truck sized farm machines looks like they will continue to get smarter and smarter.
. . . .
“Most people don’t realize how complicated it is, so a lot of our farmers are making very very complicated decisions for their farm and their business and they are using data to do that and make sure in the smartest way possible that they are profitable and helping to feed everyone,” he said.
And still more:
Rapid urbanization, aging farm populations, and depleting rural labor resources pose serious threats to our global food security. As rural labor resources come under continued pressure, tractors are the answer. When available, tractors can work 40x faster and be significantly less expensive than off-farm labor. Most farmers, however, can’t afford to own their own tractors and most tractor service providers operate well below their potential.
Hello Tractor has developed a solution to address these problems. The company has developed a low-cost monitoring device that when placed on a tractor provides the owner with powerful software and analytics tools to ensure tractors are both profitable and properly cared for. The software connects tractor owners to farmers in need of tractor services – just like Uber for tractors. Hello Tractor also works with financial institutions and technicians to ensure tractor owners have the financing and spare parts needed to grow and protect their fleet. All of this work is being done to ensure that smallholder farmers have the resources they need to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing global agricultural market.
Bizarre!
[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]