> > We are highly mechanized here in Iowa. We have to. There isn't
> > the population base to do it any differently.
> Chicken <==> Egg
So you want to move here? The agribusiness is a very lean machine
and the people load is seasonal.
I work about five miles from what is now, I believe, the world's
largest chicken-egg production facility. This one place consumes as
much corn as can be grown in about 800 square miles. As big as it
is, they've only got a small handful of people working there. The
level of automation is staggering. It is so big they replace
thousands of chickens every week and they have their own mammoth
incubator facility.
Another seed operation nearby processes close to $1 billion dollars
worth of seed a year and they have only about thirty people working
there. "Necessity" isn't the "mother of invention", but labor
shortage is.
On a side note--something of humour, I grew up in an agriculture
area, but nothing on the factory scale here. I still do a
double-take when I see a tractor or combine or spreader or sprayer or
800 bushel wagon going through town. These things dwarf semis. I
saw a new 12-wheeled tractor (yes, 12 tires!) yesterday that took up
every inch of two lanes and barely fit below the stop lights. And I
thought 38-row fully-articulating corn-planters were big. I'll run
past the dealership tonight to see if they've got anything outside
that I can take a picture of. John Deere produces some stuff here in
Iowa that usually doesn't get shipped anywhere else because it's too
large and heavy to transport.
AG
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