Gadgets and gizmos are now just a way of life

WHEN is the right time to invest in new technology when you’re paying for it with your own hard-earned cash?

Every week, pages in the farming papers are devoted to such developments – but, while everyone knows that these things are going on, it’s sometimes a bit more difficult to actually become involved.

Farmers fall into three categories when it comes to taking these things up.

There’s always someone who has to be the first to get the latest gizmo – and they often enjoy making sure that everyone around knows that they’ve got it.

As long as the technology or piece of equipment is successful, they’re keen to be known as the first ones to take it up – but if it proves to be a dud, the thing is often quietly dropped and nothing more is ever said about the large amount of money which was spent on it.

If the technology does prove successful, though, some wait until it’s been well tested and becomes a bit cheaper.

But few want to be left until last, playing catch-up after everyone else has been benefiting from the stuff for years.

So I would hope that it’s because we’ve reached the middle category where the technology is bedded in and has become not only hardy enough to cope with farm life but also a bit cheaper that we’re currently thinking about investing in some of this equipment.

We’ve used GPS guidance on our tractors for some years now – mainly, it has to be admitted, because my son was lucky enough to win a unit in a competition at the Highland show a few years ago.

But things have moved on and, as that system suffered a few hiccups last sowing time, we’re considering fitting the sort of system which actually does the steering to one of the tractors we already have, rather than spending tens of thousands on buying a new one with it already fitted.

Of course, while driving in a straight line might not actually earn more, you do need this technology at the root of any system which allows yield mapping and so-called precision agriculture which allows you to vary fertiliser and spray rates to suit the soil and crop conditions.

However, when it comes to the steering wheel I suspect that “letting go” might be a bit challenging initially – but it’s amazing just how quickly you get used to these things. But we’ll still need to keep a close eye on the machine – and push all the buttons and turn at the end of the field though, so there’ll be no nodding off!