Farm machinery has taken huge leaps forward over the last century. The industrial revolution has changed farming beyond recognition; moving from horse and manual methods; to huge industrial machines.
Now farms work with a range of machines but the trusty old tractor remains the most widely used machine on farms. Combine harvesters have taken one job away from tractors, however tractors, due to their versatility, still do the vast majority of work on modern farms. Due to the variety of implements and attachments tractors lend themselves to a huge variety of tasks on any farm and are an extremely valuable tool for farmers.
The plough was an ancient implement used to turn and prepare the soil for planting. This was upgraded by John Deere back in 1838, and more recently ploughs have been replaced by offset disks and chisels. As technology has developed and the requirements have changed so have the farm machines, and the evolution of the plough is a perfect example of that.
Planters have been developed over the years to allow farmers to plant seeds; planters, trans-planters and drills all help with this process. These machines can also lay down plastic sheeting whilst planting seeds through them. Once planting is completed there are machines to pick weeds, spread fertiliser, pesticides and manure. Irrigation equipment helps to provide water to wide areas of land, while there are machines to cut and bail grass. In more extreme cases planes and helicopters are used with attachments for aerial spraying and livestock management.
As technology develops, so does agriculture and the farm machinery they use. There are now tools and machines for a huge variety of jobs making it possible to farm on a much larger scale than was ever thought possible.
Raoty Paul Official 