Intelligent Machines for Agriculture in 1990

During the next ten years the United States will experience a change in farm structure. A smaller number of farms will be producing more food. Both very small and very large farms will increase in numbers. They will change to be more diversified in production, utilize on-farm processing of consumer products, and apply advances in automation.

These changes are needed to provide consumers food that is cost and quality competitive in worldwide markets. This paper is intended to instill the reader into becoming aware of the changes in technology, marketing, banking, labor and population interests. These trends will direct new farm mechanization towards intelligent machines capable of doing a multitude of tasks. Advances in vision systems, lasers, speech recognition, and bubble memory will be incorporated into mechanized robots and controlled traffic systems. In no way is this paper to be construde as a forecast because the direction of technology can not be forecasted.