Dads farms are starting to get harvested. He has always loved John Deere equipment....but man....the beast that is harvesting as I type this is humongous! It is not the largest combine that John Deere makes...but the 2nd largest. Just kidding dad! Dad never buys new equipment. This combine costs more than an R44 new.....Once it leaves the dealers lot....it takes a $100,000 hit in value.....and after one year of running....another $100,000. Dad waits till several more years depreciate it...then he moves in and buys. This is a 2008 model. It has GPS guided steering.....a computer monitors yields across the farm and the data is used to control the fertilizer applicator to put on heavier where the yields were lower....and lighter where they are higher.

This combine is the Cadillac of combines....you would not believe how plush it is inside. The controls are in the pistol grip.......looks harder to run than my helicopter!

It has a 35 foot wide grain head on it.......a monster I tell you! The sickle hydraulically floats across the ground getting every soybean pod possible. Farming sure has changed since I left the farm in 1986! But.....I was independent like my dad.....and after 15 years of farming...it was not in my blood....and still isn't. I walked away from a silver spoon operation....but have no regrets. You have to do what you love!

Dad is 93 years old and this is the largest crop he has ever had.

High tech everywhere. That is HUGE! I bet it's even sound proof

But..... can it fly? What speed does it cruise at?



What size rotor on it??


Now that is largeish

Soon there will be drone combines.
You'll probably be able to monitor/control it with your iPhone from the comfort of your easy chair.

I heard someone flew a F15 without a pilot last week.

You are probably more correct than even you think you are

Soon, humans will just live in dark rooms which they will seldom leave, visit places by watching holographic or virtual screens, food will be grown and tended to by remote.... in the not too distant future I bet

Glad I wont be here Enjoy life as we know it while you can

That combine could almost harvest the whole field without any body in the cab...All you would need is a synchronized and GPS guided tractor and grain cart to transfer the grain on the go.

The tractors are equipped with the GPS autosteer now. You can literally sit in the cabin and plant laser beam straight rows. You can easily tell which combines and tractors are GPS controlled. Most perfect straight lines across the fields. Some of dads fields are 3/4 mile long, and straight rows that long are amazing.

Too bad the surveyors a hundred and more years ago didn't have GPS to guide their survey lines. All of dads farms vary in width and length, sometimes 30 feet difference! I realize that the surveyors had to adjust for the converging longitudinal lines as they go north.....but I am talking about irregularities in the surveying that was done to the best of mans ability at that time with the equipment they had.

Now every line would be probably within an inch, and that may be an insult to the surveyors today!

You have to realise that the ground is often moving an inch a year... it is not uncommon for a boundary stake placed 50 years ago to be a foot or more out of place now....

Imagine having a farm in California with the SA fault hru it.... half your farm would be on your neighbours place in about 20 years. I would say if your dads farms have pegs shown, and you get them re-surveyed so the posts are where they should be.... and the title shows a straight line between the posts.... then that is your dads land.... now a days