Image: Capelle.r/ Moment/ Getty Images
About This Quiz
There are certain basics to farming that haven't changed since the first nomad realized that if they used a hooked stick to break up the soil where their favorite berry patch grew, more berry plants would appear the following year. There are other elements of farming, however, that have become unbelievably specialized and technologically advanced. From sensors and apps to monitor soil moisture, to hyper-precise weather forecasts to ensure that planting happens at an optimal time, to intelligent dairies that monitor the health and output of every cow, farming has entered the 21st century.
This means that the variety of equipment farmers have to be able to use has only risen. Sure, some of the new equipment saves them labor, but that doesn't mean they get extra free time! It means instead that they merely upgrade their systems to produce more efficiently (and hopefully, humanely). The new devices and the additional features of older devices have thus not reduced the workload, though they have radically increased safety and raised efficiency and productivity. Some backbreaking and dangerous work has now been replaced by computers and spreadsheets, which is great for farmers who often experience chronic injuries at a young age.
How well do you know the old and the new on farms? Let's find out!
One
Three
A combine harvester is a fabulous invention that radically cuts the amount of time it takes to get the harvest in, which means that the odds of spoilage and crop loss are radically reduced. This wonderful machine performs three functions, hence the "combine" name. It reaps, it threshes and it winnows. It's a miracle on wheels!
Five
Seven
Advertisement
It blows away.
It grows smaller plants.
It loses overall quality.
Topsoil is an incredibly complicated biological system, and plowing it too much messes with that system in several ways. You can break the soil down so that nutrients and moisture are lost, leaving you vulnerable to erosion and reducing yields per acre. Over-plowing is one of the No.1 sins of farming. It's something that modern equipment is designed to help avoid.
Nothing happens. Topsoil doesn't mind plowing.
Advertisement
Removing something from the ground
A rock picker can help you remove smaller rocks, but if you discover something very big in your field, you need a backhoe. This standard piece of industrial or construction equipment is a must-have on every farm over a certain size. Smaller farms may share one to save money.
Moving cattle
Cutting down trees
Planting hedges
Advertisement
Strawberry-picking robot
Wait for them to fall off
There is no good way to do this.
Pick them by hand
There are automated strawberry-picking robots, but, so far, they are not cheaper or better than humans once you account for the purchase price. There is simply no substitute for the original and best piece of equipment on your farm — a pair of hands attached to a hardworking person. Strawberry picking is backbreaking labor, so next time you enjoy a delicious ripe berry, spare a moment of gratitude for the worker who helped bring it to your plate!
Advertisement
Aerating soil
Breaking up lumps in the soil
Ensuring moisture and nutrients are spread through the soil
All of the above
Plowing is all about making sure the texture of the soil is firm enough for plants to grow but loose enough for water, nutrients and oxygen to get to the seeds, and for the shoots to grow easily through the surface. It has many functions, but the depth of plowing should always be adjusted to the soil type.
Advertisement
Digging ditches
A trencher is designed to dig long, thin holes. Ditches serve an important function in farming. They help the field to drain standing water from the topsoil so that crops are not drowned where they stand. Drainage is a key part of a working farm.
Filling in ditches
Removing tree stumps
Making ponds
Advertisement
Wooden fencing
Electric fencing
Barbed wire fencing
Hedge
Hedges are like lawns, and they require little to no maintenance outside of the growing season. Hedges also have the advantage that if a gap develops, they can grow back and fill it up themselves, unlike fences where you have to add a new section more deliberately!
Advertisement
Bisphenol A
DDT
DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was considered a wonder substance when it first came out. It transformed crop yields and overhauled farming. Then scientist Rachel Carson realized that it was not just killing pests, it was killing all the insects and birds that sustain the food chain, including pollinators that we rely on for our crops to grow. Her book, "Silent Spring," changed the story of DDT. It can be said without exaggeration that Carson's work saved entire ecosystems from collapse.
Sulfates
Parabens
Advertisement
Manure
Spread
Natural fertilizer
Slurry
There should be no waste on a proper farm! Slurry is an example of how farms are designed to use even manure. It goes into a tank where it is made sufficiently liquid to flow and stored until it is used as fertilizer. One of the worst days to walk on any farm is the day the slurry is spread!
Advertisement
Sulfates
Pthalates
Neonicitinoids
Biologicals
Some pesticides and fertilizers are high-impact, in the sense that they can be very effective but they also risk killing off too many species or leaving traces on the crops. Biologicals are naturally occurring chemicals and organisms that serve the same functions but have a relatively lower impact on the environment. They are a rapidly growing branch of farming.
Advertisement
DDT
Delta dust
Diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is harmless to mammals but full of tiny spiky fragments known as diatoms that pierce the shells of insects and kill them. It is put into barns to kill off critters attempting to eat stored crops. It won't do any damage should some of it remain in the food chain.
Pollinated earth
Advertisement
A tarp
A container
Temperatures over 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Absence of oxygen
Silage is grass or hay that has been compacted in anaerobic conditions so that it ferments. This keeps it from sprouting or spoiling, meaning that it can be stored and used as fodder throughout the winter. Silage can only be created in the absence of oxygen, which can be achieved with a compactor or even through the use of tarpaulins and very heavy tractor tires.
Advertisement
Two
The cows generally go to be milked twice a day, as this is the optimal arrangement for their comfort and output. When cows who are currently producing milk are not milked, this causes them to be uncomfortable. Milking is also a chance for them to get into the parlor where there is food waiting for them!
Five
One
Three
Advertisement
Rain
Insects
Transport
A grain drier is a kind of silo that stores grain at the perfect temperature. Ensuring that moisture levels are not too high is essential to prevent grain from sprouting or spoiling. It also ensures that rodents and other critters cannot get to the grain and eat it.
Birds
Advertisement
Hay baler
Hay fork
Pitchforks are the smaller, individual version of this piece of equipment which can move a lot of hay. Once hay is baled, you can stick the bale on a fork and easily move it around. Bales keep getting bigger and bigger, so the forks are also getting bigger!
Hay lifter
Bale shifter
Advertisement
Produce sorter
The produce sorter will sort all sorts of things by size. It works exactly the same way as a machine that sorts coins, using different-size channels for the eggs to slide down. This is how your small, medium, large and jumbo eggs end up neatly arranged in their boxes!
Egg organizer
Change machine
Egg peg
Advertisement
In a gateway
In the ground under a gateway
A cattle guard, or cattle grid, is a row of bars that you can put into a gateway to make sure cows cannot go through. It is useful for when you need humans or machines to go in and out frequently, and opening and shutting a gate would be too much effort. Of course, a cattle grid is permanent, but you can put a board over it should you decide you want your cows on the other side!
In the farmyard
In the dairy
Advertisement
Broadcast seeder
Individually planting every single seed is very labor-intensive and slow, hence the broadcast seeder, which makes sure they get to where they need to go. There was a somewhat automated version of the broadcast seeder. Early versions of this piece of equipment would drop seeds at the correct intervals.
Manure door
Fertilizer sprayer
Seed distributor
Advertisement
1721
Around 5,000 B.C.
1928
1867
Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio, invented barbed wire in 1867. It was not as sophisticated as the modern variety, but it was a huge boon to farmers. Post-and-rail fencing is expensive and hard to maintain, while regular wire doesn't deter some types of animals from simply wandering through it.
Advertisement
Horse
Sheep
Electric fencing is light and portable, and the charge can be varied, depending on the animal you're protecting. The highest voltage should be used for sheep, as they have a thicker coat than most animals. If you accidentally make contact with the electric fence when the pulse comes through, you will notice!
Cow
Goat
Advertisement
To remove the chaff from the wheat
To pick pebbles and mud out of the crop
To tidy up cut crops so they can be picked up
A swather is a machine that organizes the cut crops into beautiful cornrows (also known as windrows) so they are easy to collect. This is incredibly important, as reducing the time between harvesting and collection saves on spoilage and loss to pests. Swathing is thus a key step in ensuring farmers don't work all year only to lose their crop before they can get it to market.
To pick your crops
Advertisement
Draper head
Auger head
Corn head
Seed head
A draper head, auger head, or corn head are all attachments you might put on the front of your harvester to collect your crops. If you use the wrong machine, you can mangle your crop badly or cut it off too high to get the piece you wanted. These machines have replaced the scythe and sickle, and saved millions of backs from early destruction!
Advertisement
Seed drill
You have to put seeds deep enough that they can get a good grip on the soil and birds cannot eat them, but not so deep that the sunlight cannot help them to sprout, or so that there is too much soil between them and coming out of the ground. A seed drill helps to automate this previously laborious and difficult process.
Measuring blade
No-till drill
Seeder spreader
Advertisement
Ricer
Rice picker
Rice sorter
Rice huller
Rice does not come out of the ground in a nice neat little grain. It is inside a husk that has to be removed. Automating the fiddly and slow process of husking the rice has transformed the lives of literally billions of people by reducing the cost and labor involved in producing this staple crop.
Advertisement
Rock eater
Rock picker
If you leave too many rocks in your field, or even a single one that is too large, you will not only blunt your plow or your harvester, you could easily break them. A rock picker helps you to identify and remove the bigger rocks so that you have a nice smooth surface that is ready to be plowed or harrowed.
Boulder holder
Stone be-gone
Advertisement
You are lazy.
Your soil or climate is the wrong type to plow.
Harrowing is appropriate where the topsoil is not deep or thick enough for plowing. When farmers over-plow their soil, it becomes too loose and crumbly and can erode in rain and wind. Making the right choice for the soil type prevents issues like the Dust Bowl occurring again.
It doesn't make any difference.
It has rained recently, and the soil is too sodden to plow.
Advertisement
Insurance
Certification for operator
Maintenance log
All of the above
You don't need a log or certificate for all farming equipment, but when it comes to a half-million-dollar combine harvester, there are regulations to follow, as well as a certain logic in making sure you have dotted every "I" and crossed every "T". These machines are generally specialized, and not everyone knows how to handle them.
Advertisement
Probe
Meter
App
All of the above
Soil moisture is essential to ensure that plants have enough water but not too much. This avoids wasting water, which is especially important in drier climates. Over-watering plants also damages their output and can weaken the soil so that the roots become unstable.
Advertisement
Wrapping
Bales should be wrapped after they are made. There is even a machine that does the baling and wrapping in one process, though it is possible to use two or three machines. A baling machine is a delightful thing to watch in action, as it is rather comical. The bales go round and round on a small platform and then they are spat back onto the field's surface.
Collection
Tedding
Rolling
Advertisement
Fendt
John Deere
Gippsland
These are all brands that are big in farming. Gippsland is a brand of crop-dusting planes, but the others are all types of tractors. The fanciest tractors can cost over $500,000, while a "cheaper" one will still cost in the high five figures. Driving a tractor remains hard work, even with all the modern accoutrements.
Claas Tucano
Advertisement
Bulk tank
Pulsator line
Human
Automation in dairy is a challenge because cows respond to human touch and tend to be affectionate toward the dairyman if he is competent! As the cows move around and need to be soothed, reducing the number of people in the mix was a huge challenge. These days, there are still dairymen, but the physical and dangerous parts of the job can be automated. The human's job is to monitor the cows and make sure everything is going well.
Teat clip
Advertisement
Harvesting and cleaning
Harvesting and sorting
The farming industry has been automating slowly compared to some businesses, mainly thanks to the low cost of labor and the stupendous costs of the equipment that displaces certain types of workers. Ultimately, a machine that picks olives, grapes, or anything as well-hidden as a potato, is a heck of a technological challenge, as it is not just a matter of identifying which is the part to pick, the machine also has to avoid squashing the produce! Only now are these machines becoming dextrous, smart and quick enough to replace people.
Harvesting and replanting
Stacking and cleaning
Advertisement
Rain
Soil soaking
Drip irrigation
Drip irrigation is superior to other forms as it monitors the flow and delivers the water only in the smallest possible amount required. As we mentioned, when it comes to soil moisture, too much or too little can be equally problematic and wasteful.
Archimedes screw
Advertisement
740
Today, one worker can farm an area of up to about 740 acres, which is slightly smaller than New York's Central Park. It may not seem like the most enormous slice of land, but in 1890, this number was 27.5 acres! It took humanity many years to get from the point that a worker could handle a couple of acres to handling just under 30, but only 100 years to leap by an order of magnitude. Electricity and the internal combustion engine are the key factors that prompted this.
2,250
120
80
Advertisement
Luddites
The Luddites were based in the English counties of Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire, and they were opposed to textile and farming equipment. They felt that this would take away their jobs. To be fair to them, the percentage of people in farming has dropped tremendously, but the total number of jobs has gone up, and people generally went into safer and better roles, so their concern was largely misplaced.
Ammonites
Pinkertons
Cavemen
Advertisement
You Got:
/35
