How are you going to keep them down on the farm after they've seen "technology?"
The obvious answer is to bring technology to the farm.
"I can't imagine what my grandfather would have thought if he saw things we have today," said Tom Strauss, 68, of Palmer Station. "I expect he would go into shock if he saw all this."
Like every business, large and small, in America, farming and agriculture is more and more reliant upon technology.
Strauss and his wife, Evelyn, have had a "computerized" farm management system for 15 years. Evelyn Strauss is the computer whiz, according to her husband.
"I do a few things on it," he said.
All the farm's accounting, record-keeping, ordering and research is done on the computer.
"It makes a whole lot of difference," the Washington County grain and beef cattle farmer said. "We save money, and it makes the job easier."
Technology is part of every aspect of farming today, from the office to the barn and from the field to the milking parlor.
"We can walk into a milking parlor today and a tiny computer chip implanted in each cow can tell us which cow it is, how much milk can be expected, the cow's age and any health issues," said Matt Hartline, agriculture science instructor at Waterford High School.
Hartline's family owns a major dairy farm operation in Washington County - Hartline Farms of Stanleyville.
"Our farm doesn't have this advanced technology yet, but there are computerized systems and record-keeping in the milking parlor," he said.
With technology, the challenge is often getting by tradition.
"Most of this high-tech stuff was non-existent on the farm 20 or 30 years ago," Hartline said. "The average age of the farmer today is maybe, 55, and it's hard to get those guys to buy into some of this."
With the younger generation coming up, Hartline said there will be no problem.
"My 4-year-old is already figuring out the computer and for most kids, it's as natural as anything," he said.
Marty Clark, farm business and analysis instructor at Washington County Career Center, works closely with more than 50 farm families. Technology issues are a huge part of the program.
"We are a bit more unusual in Washington County in that 90 percent of the families I work with have computer record-keeping," Clark said. "Across America, I expect that number is much lower."
Computers have been accepted across generations of farmers.
"They are very comfortable with the technology," Clark said.
Clark's first computer cost $2,400 and didn't do half of what computer technology does today, he said.
"Now you can buy a computer for $600 and it does way, way more," he said. "No matter what you pay, it saves you more than it costs you and makes you money."
In the realm of communications on the farm, cell phone technology has transformed lifestyles in agriculture.
Years ago, farmers were summoned home by the smell of salt pork sizzling on the stove and an oversized dinner bell. The clanging could reach the back of the most remote field. Today most every one on the farm carries a cell phone.
The next major wave of technology impacting the farm is the global positioning system technology. Connecting to satellite systems above the Earth, the GPS promises to guide the farmer's tractor and field equipment in precision tilling, planting, fertilizer application and crop harvesting.
GPS is a technology that part-time farmer and natural resource instructor Kevin Wagner of Waterford can get excited about.
"It's not real new technology, but the older units were way more expensive than today," he said. "I purchased one myself and am spreading the word of what the GPS can do."
Basically, it helps guide the tractor in perfect "rows" to eliminate "skips" and "overlaps" in the fields, he said.
"An operator doesn't have to keep looking out the side window anymore," he said. "It's real precise and can be used for planting, spreading manure, spraying and fertilizing, tillage - anything that needs a straight line made."
It means farmers save money and time.
A GPS on the farm can cost from less than $1,000 (no screen, only a light bar) to an average of $1,800. There are even units sold for $10,000, Wagner said.
"The more advanced unit, the more accuracy," he said. "If you get a good one and pay for satellite service (instead of hooking up free), you can get within an inch of accuracy."
The technology is getting so advanced that a GPS can be installed on a tractor and it drives itself, Wagner said.
The more than 540-acre Strauss farm has not advanced to GPS yet, but that possibility is down the road, Tom Strauss said.
Efficiency is the reason he appreciates technology.
"It helps us sort out enterprises and problems and adjust to different things," Strauss said.
Hartline believes the wave of the future on the farm is biotechnology, the science of genetically modifying organisms.
"In terms of ordering genes, it will mean higher and better yields," he said.
One example is altering the genes of the soybean itself so a weed killer can be applied without damaging the plant itself.
