Making a Home
A Community in Conflict
Working for a Living
Farming in the Great Corn Belt
Abraham Lincoln in McLean County
The Cost of Farming – New Technology: Computers
The use of computer software dramatically streamlined the record keeping process, and made analysis of the data faster, easier, and more accurate.
“Sound management decisions will be essential to farmers as they begin their 1982 field work. And they are using computers to make those key decisions more quickly and efficiently.” —Chris Heiser, Bloomington Pantagraph, April 6, 1982
In 1978, 42 McLean County farmers tested a new monitor developed by Bloomington’s International Tapetronics Corporation.
Mounted inside the tractor cab, the monitor counted the number of seeds planted in each row. The monitor eliminated problems of skipping, under planting, and overplanting.
Minier farmer Bob Brenneman watched a monitor from inside the cab of his tractor. The monitor indicated the rate at which the seed was planted, as well as when a seed reservoir was empty.
Improved computers that used Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology to record important field data and monitor and control planting and fertilizer application rates, was standard on most new equipment by the early 2000s.
The use of GPS technology had a cost saving effect for McLean County farmers as early as the 1990s.
The technology mapped the farmers’ fields to pinpoint soil types, productivity, and yields. Combined with technology that changed the rate of fertilizer applied, instead of spreading the same amount across an entire field, some area farmers saved $4 per acre on fertilizer costs.
“This technology gives us a way to ensure we’re adequately fertilizing our cash rent ground, without over fertilizing.”
— Wayne Furrow, McLean, Woodford, and Livingston County farmer
