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hen I was about 13 or 14, they completely transformed their way of farming: they bought a Combine with a massive tractor and wagon. As a teenage boy, this Combine was of great interest to me—I mean, who doesn’t love big machines like that? I still have fond memories of that great big Combine, but until recently I didn’t realize how my early experiences with farming helped shape my views of the IT world. Curious about their brand new behemoth-like machines, I asked one of my uncles why they needed them now when they didn’t before. My uncle explained that the heavy lifting of farm work—the planting and harvesting—used to be accomplished with the help of neighbors. Neighboring farmers would help with plowing and planting. It was the same in the fall, where everyone pitched in to help with the harvest, the heaviest of the heavy lifting. Before, they had a small fleet of aging farm equipment—small tractors, single row corn pickers, corn shellers, and more—but with a growing farm, they needed to get serious. It was no longer practical for them to continue operating their farms the way they were doing it back then. Although the crop production side made money, I later came to learn that the dairy side of their business was actually the most profitable. The money from crop production was largely used to fund the dairy operation. While the dairy side of the business had largely fixed costs, there was opportunity to become a lot more efficient on the crop production side. My uncles could have replaced all of their old farm equipment with newer versions of the same type for less than it cost to buy the Combine, but Combines are extraordinary pieces of equipment; they are extremely efficient. Buying this one powerful machine was a brilliant move because it eliminated the need for a lot of smaller machines, and allowed my uncles to do the same amount of work with a lot less help in a fraction of the time. The Combine allowed them to actually grow the crop production part of the business, while leaving them with more time to devote to the dairy side of the business. I was fascinated by the idea that one machine could help them do so much more, and asked my uncle if there was a way for the Combine to do even more of the work on the farm—he smiled and told me that it does plenty already.
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