Darkening skies and a light morning drizzle blanketed the fields while combines harvested corn and tractor-trailers hauled away this year's crop. Even though he knew what was coming, Brian Watkins hopped out of his pickup truck and stepped into his office to check the weather forecast on his computer.
The radar map on his laptop showed a blob of yellow and green _ a big storm _ headed right his way. "Oh man, that doesn't look very good," he said, knowing that much of the day was going to be lost.
Although he still can't control the weather, nearly everything else is a different matter. With computerized gadgets that can steer a tractor, monitor how much corn is harvested per acre and keep fresh air flowing through the pig barn, Watkins' farm is an example of the impact modern technology has had on agriculture.
Watkins, 43, is the sixth generation of his family to farm this land about 60 miles northwest of Columbus. He and his brother, Mark, took over the operation from their father.
Watkins started farming full time 23 years ago with about 400 acres. Now the farm is a small business with 2,000 hogs and 5,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat, most of which is turned into feed for his pigs or sold to neighboring hog farms.
"My memory of growing up here is very different from what we do today," Watkins said.
The planter that sows corn and soybeans stretches 60 feet across and can finish 400 acres on a good day. It wasn't long ago that they were happy to get through 20 acres in a day. His Caterpillar combine can harvest 35,000 bushels per hour.
"That's what makes farms get bigger," Watkins said.
Not everyone has embraced technology and the movement toward large farming. Some environmental groups think big farms are to blame for increased water and air pollution. And some farmers believe that the advances in technology have led to the demise of family farms and a change in rural lifestyle.
But Watkins doesn't see it that way. Advancements in agriculture have eliminated a lot of back-breaking work. The hours are still long, but much time is now spent managing and marketing the business.
"I don't want to go back to using horses and old tractors," he said. "I don't want to shovel manure by hand. To me, that's ludicrous."
There's no more daily lifting of feed bags to keep the hogs nourished. A computer in the barn controls the food, water, temperature and air flow.
"One person can take care of it in two hours," Watkins said.
Some of the biggest changes have been made by gadgets that are everyday items for many.
E-mail cuts down on wasted time waiting for phone calls. Cell phones have replaced radios in the tractors and combines.
And soon, wireless Internet may allow even more access to computers. While the equipment already is in place on Watkins' farm, it can't reach all of the fields.
Sam Beiler, 32, who helps operate the farm's feed mill, installed the equipment that one day could allow computers to instantly monitor how much corn is coming off the field and send the data back to the office.
"The tractor's driving itself anyway," Beiler said. "So you might as well be checking the markets."
This past spring, Watkins planted his cornfields for the first time with a Global Positioning System that allowed his tractor to essentially drive itself.
A fixed transmitter on the farm sends signals back to the tractor that allow it to travel a straight line; a human operator still has to turn it around.
The GPS allows farmers to work longer into the night when it's more difficult to see. They can avoid planting on top of old root systems. And it reduces fatigue, Watkins said.
A memory card stores the paths already taken so he can pick up exactly where he stopped. The system also is creating a topographical map of the fields that is accurate to within an inch.
Watkins plans on combining that information with numbers gathered by yield monitors on his combines that tell him which fields are producing the most corn and soybeans.
All of that will help him decide where more drainage is needed in the fields and lead to more production.
"My grandfather knew you needed drainage for this to work," Watkins said.
The difference now is that farmers can make better decisions based on the data technology provides.
"You can see how much money you're leaving on the table," he said.
