.....I commute between Ankeny and Ames everyday and I usually take note how many corn and soybean fields are harvested, and rarely ever see a combine in the field. These machines have become so large and efficient during the last thirty years, that one combine can do the work of two of its predecessors from thirty years ago. Correspondingly, the amount of land farmed by any given operator has grown tremendously during that time, with a concomitant decrease in the number of farmer 'plying their craft' through the fields of the rural hinterland. What will these machines look like thirty years from now?
