By: Tyler Lahusky
John Deere tractors may be one of the most interesting
things on the planet, but agricultural engineering goes far deeper than just
designing the new age tractor. In fact, that would just be scratching the
surface of what lies beneath the realm of agricultural engineering. However, how
much of what is preconceived about agricultural engineering is truly… true?
Many people today have endless preconceptions about subjects such as
agricultural engineering. I am included in this and fall guilty of the same
preconceptions. So, in order to further educate myself and others on
agricultural engineering, I listed some previous believes I had formed in my
own mind about agricultural engineering, and used an introductory textbook to
prove them right, or wrong. These misconceptions I tested about agricultural
engineering included:
- Agricultural engineers focus the majority of their time on machinery and mechanical related problems/designs.
- There are some, but not many, agricultural engineers in research and development.
- Agricultural engineers spend all of their time in the office.
- Agricultural engineers use some, but only limited biology in their designs and new technology.
- Agricultural engineers are limited to current technology and work mainly with crops.
Agricultural engineering began in the early 1900’s, during WWII when machines were needed to pick up slack that human power could no longer contribute. The field of agricultural engineering was brought about to solve just that problem – the mechanization of labor. This early stage of the field had a primary focus on mechanical devices and machines, but that quickly changed. Proving my preconception of a focus on only machines wrong, I learned that agricultural engineers began working with the productivity of livestock and producing chemicals to improve crop productivity years ago. This was the initial shift to broaden from the area of mechanization. Soon after, many things other than mechanization began sprouting up such as the development of greenhouse facilities and procedures to improve horticulture, for example.
As
I dug deeper into what agricultural engineers work on, I quickly learned that not
only do they have a wide spectrum of focuses, but play a large role in research
and development. Engineers are thought of as getting a new idea and designing a
way to make it work. This was no longer the case as agricultural engineers were
researching completely new ways to improve horticulture. The field then dove
further into a research related field, discovering new ways to create fuels through
biomass. Biomass fuels (or biofuels) production and research is a major project
for agriculture engineers today. As more and more research was conducted, fields
such as catfish farming, aquaculture, hydroponics, sod and turf management, and
energy production arose from agricultural engineering. (Hall 18-22) Although
computers are widely used by agricultural engineers and all engineers today,
time spent in the office is well balanced. With all these growing fields and new
research being conducted, agricultural engineers get a good amount of time in
the field, proving another one of my prior beliefs to be wrong.
Biology
is not thought to be a large part of engineering of any field. Agricultural
engineering uses some biology, but not much… or so I thought. Biology turns out
to be an extremely large part of agricultural engineering. Development of chemicals
for crops, crop productivity, and much more research requires a vast knowledge
of biology. One of the biggest projects for agricultural engineers today is biotechnology
and work with DNA. This is entirely biology with some engineering involved. As
Carl W. Hall states in the book The Literature of Agricultural Engineering,
“[agricultural engineers] need to more closely identify with biologists…” (Hall
18-22) This new research and development proves another one of by beliefs wrong
– agricultural engineers are only limited to current technology. Between
biotechnology and biomass fuel development alone, new technology is developed
by agricultural engineers every day. Today, agricultural engineers are
researching new ways to implement new technologies such as robots, new
materials, and new forms of energy.
In
order to prove my preconceptions right or wrong, I used a textbook titled The
Literature of Agricultural Engineering and found my information in the
second chapter titled “Influence and Scope of the Agricultural Engineering
Profession”. The text proved to be highly effective in researching previous
beliefs and was packed with information. Many truths were learned through the
research process and I have obtained an understanding of the field of
agricultural engineering to a much greater extent.
Source: Hall, Carl W, and Wallace C. Olsen. The Literature of Agricultural Engineering. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. Print.
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