# 52 Years Ago Today



## NewBerlinBaler (May 30, 2011)

On September 22, 1960 at a campaign stop in South Dakota, presidential candidate John Kennedy said:

"The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale and pays the freight both ways".

Has much changed?


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## steve in IN (Sep 30, 2009)

Not much. We still pay for everything and take what we can get. The thing I dont understand is that consumer technology(Microwaves,toasters ,computers,etc.) gets cheaper but all ag technology goes up every year.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

steve in IN said:


> Not much. We still pay for everything and take what we can get. The thing I dont understand is that consumer technology(Microwaves,toasters ,computers,etc.) gets cheaper but all ag technology goes up every year.


That's simple, probably at least 30 major brands of microwaves out there but maybe half a dozen to a dozen companies that offer ag tech.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Problem is volume of sales with ag equipment, just not enuf to offset the required expenditure for development of said technology. Always been like that for electronics, that's why the pc was such an important development, enuf of the product was sold to offset the cost of development, in return we have exponentially increased memory, processor speed, bandwidth, etc. on the money generated by the vast volume of sales. And of course this demand has increased competition which in turn drives down costs and increases efficiency in manufacturing. Just not there with ag business. Interesting to see the marriage of tablet type control/interface in the newer cars, signaling a end to the conventional controls of manual switches and cables, drive by wire if you will.... My .02


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