How do modern inventions help farming?

Answer 1

That all depends on what inventions you are referring to. Farm machinery like tractors, plows, swathers/windrowers, cultivators, combine harvesters, etc. all enable a farmer to use less labour (or less people) to till a field and sow and harvest a field of wheat, barley, corn, canola, or whatever type of crop he/she has planted that spring. Larger fields can be used per one person, and this a larger bumper crop with less wastage than what would normally be gotten with the scythe could be taken off. Genetic research and crop sciences enable farmers to grow wheat, corn or other grains and get a much larger bumper crop than what could be obtained 100 years ago.

Computers have also helped farming tremendously in the ability to use GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) on a tractor or combine harvester to enable that machine to operate pretty much without a human driver. A computer itself is necessary to record information about the year's crop, as well as the finances that must be kept track of throughout the year.

For livestock, such modern inventions like handling facilities (squeeze or crush, race or working chute, loading chute, crowding pen/tub, weigh scales, etc.) have all helped with managing and processing livestock much easier, especially since the horse has been replaced by the tractor or car, and knowledge of the cowboy way is as rare, for most people, as seeing a tractor in Central Park in New York City. The invention of proper handling facilities have come about with more concerns for animal welfare and more awareness of how animals think and behave.

Other inventions to do with livestock are Confined Animal Feeding Operations or CAFOs, the most debated and controversial way of raising livestock to date. This "invention" takes advantage of the consumer's need for more meat, eggs and milk sooner and all the time, which means having to have animals indoors confined to be fed to produce just that: meat from hogs, broiler chickens and beef cattle, eggs from layer chickens and milk from dairy cows. These confined feeding operations use grain as a means to feed these animals, and since less land is needed to feed these confined animals, less feed per acre is raised per animal. However the environmental consequences and animal welfare concerns for such operations are, to say the least, disturbing, and the subject of much debate among many.