Farming: Technology is helping to take the drudgery out of farming

I USED to think there must be a reason why there was a certain element of drudgery in day-to-day farming. As I spent seemingly never-ending days picking green and bruised potatoes off grading tables, I pondered whether this repetitive work would lead to my brain cells atrophying.

At other times, after spending a day dagging sheep, my thoughts on this far-from-pleasant but necessary job would wander along the lines that I must have misbehaved badly in a previous existence and this was the penalty.

Then again, days spent harrowing fields were always difficult for someone such as myself with the attention span of a gnat. Even if I recognised that harrowing was important, it was difficult to keep the operation in such a straight line that my neighbours would drive off the road in astonishment after seeing such perfection.

Now I am finding that technology seems to be taking much of the toil and grind out of farming, with little computers flashing and squeaking their way through tasks that used to be tedious and boring.

If you pass a field today where the ploughed furrow is as straight as a die, the only thought you may have is that you did not realise that farmer X had bought into global positioning satellite technology. The tractor driver could well be phoning a friend or possibly making up and transmitting local gossip. The concentration and skill required to keep a straight line towards the horizon has gone

Similarly, a visit to the premises of any top line potato prepacker nowadays will reveal how electronic eyes are picking up blemishes on spuds, leaving the offending potato to be electronically pinged off into the reject bin.

This is all a far cry from the days when hand-picking efficiency would vary with the time of day and the attitude and ability of the human being.

And last week, cattle farmers attending the annual meeting of the Scottish Beef Cattle Association listened to the latest information on how Visual Image Analysis was not only raising question marks over the long-established and often derided Europ carcase grading system. It was also providing pointers on how profitability could be improved with better information going back to the producer.

And earlier last week, there was a whole flurry of electronic gadgetry being displayed and talked about at Quality Meat Scotland's research and development day.

In a reversal of traditional roles, one of the speakers, a computer whiz, started asking delegates what they wanted from the next generation of computers.Almost anything was possible, from disease reduction to improved efficiency, he reckoned, although he did not mention increasing the end price.

But possibly the most effective contribution that day was from Fenwick Jackson, from Kersheugh, Jedburgh, whose aim was to manage not to work his sheep.

He did not want to dag sheep so he worked to get a flock where dagging was not essential.

He did not want the problem of shearing sheep and worked on getting sheep that would shed their wool - he alleged his sheep's close crop of wool was much more effective than a heavily fleeced Blackie but let us not go there just now.

And he did not think a great deal of castrating lambs so he left his lambs entire - even though he had to watch out for unwanted matings going on.

Almost all of his day-to-day management and handling was mightily improved by electronic gadgetry, including helping in moving his sheep through his races and splitting them up through electronically opening and closing gates.

All of this may seem heresy to some but that is what he seems to be achieving.

So goodbye wearisome tasks in all sectors of farming? Well not quite.

Despite all these advances, most of which come with relatively quick financial pay-back periods that help in the conversion to the new technologies, there are still a few jobs around the farm that still fall into the "routine drudgery" category.

Try getting a computer to clear out a grain drier before harvest so that is still there as a chore.

So, as everyone knows after the past couple of months, is thawing out pipes after a frosty spell. Fruit picking and harvesting some vegetables is still hard repetitive hand work

In fact, I have just thought of another job down on the modern farm which some might classify as pretty wearisome. That's looking at computer screens all day.