It's quite justified that agricultural technology should provide the provisional finish, since here, the technology has penetrated the furthest. Not only because the joystick has made inroads, as the control element, which is something that generations of designers have been suggesting for the motor car but have never been able to realise. In this field everything is done by computer, no matter whether at home or mobile.

It probably won't be long now, before the farmer can send his machines out onto the fields, and have them do the work per remote control. From one machine to another is already reality. The basis is the area of the field to be worked, which is stored in the computer's memory. In principle, similar to the 'Autopilot' in airplanes, the vehicle-fleet works the fields independently.

The 'Autopilot' computer knows exactly how much to sow or fertilise because the background of it's processing is comprehensive know-how, e.g., information from the latest research published in the internet and also special information concerning this particular field. The computer may also have ordered the seeds and the fertilizer. The resulting avoidance of overfertilization, is an advantage which serves both the ecological and the economical aspect.

The field is then worked according to the calculations made by the computer earlier on. Even the smallest areas are not left out, indeed, unnecessary overlapping is also avoided. Should there be only enough space for half the number of furrows, then only this is sown or fertilised, not the adjoining path. In addition, at harvest time, the yield from each individual unit can be calculated to determine it's economic efficiency. So please, pay a little more respect the next time you're stuck behind a tractor on the road. 03/12