Automatic Farmer

Transcript (Download)

These are the sights and sounds of a new age in agriculture, the era of automation down on the farm.

On a rural road in Indiana in a frame and limestone house lives Warren North, one of America's great farmers.

He wears his greatness shyly, but it is there for those who look in his own hard life, in his love of the soil, and in his skill at putting science to work on his farm.

Twenty years ago, Warren North could not afford a new pair of work shoes.

Today he symbolizes an agricultural revolution that has changed American farming more in these last 20 years than in the 200 years that went before.

From the old low slung barns and the new towering steel silos, Warren North's Green Ridge Farm fans out across more than 1 ,000 acres of the richest land in northern Indiana.

To farm this green ridge, he employs only two full -time hired hands and two part -time helpers.

For Warren North believes in machinery and has since that day in 1933 when he bought his first tractor for $550.

Today he owns more than $200 ,000 in farm equipment and every piece of machinery like this forage chopper used in harvesting hay has more than repaid its cost.

These blue -black silos are the repository for the fresh cut hay which will travel through this blower to the top of the 50 -foot tower.

Two days harvest provides enough hay, 400 tons to fill one silo and a full silo lasts eight months.

Farmer North's glass -lined hermetically sealed silos allow him to keep hay and corn indefinitely without decay.

Stored fresh, the fodder will stay fresh.

The purchase of the silos marked a fateful decision for Warren North until 1957 had been growing and selling grain and feeding some hogs and cattle.

The decision was automation.

Realizing that raising grain did not pay enough, he switched to the mass production of livestock using all the grain he grew for fodder.

To go with the silos, he installed an intricate system of buttons and switches that makes feeding the cattle a one -man push -button operation.

It works something like this.

Each silo has an outlet inside the barn.

Passing through this outlet, ground corn drops into a snake -like auger which pushes the feed forward.

Farmer North from his instrument panel can select and balance his cattle's diet.

Since there is a button for each silo outlet, he is able, if he wants, to limit the livestock to the ground corn passing in close -up.

Or if he wants, he can, as is done here, blend hay with the corn.

Providing more variety in the meal, another auger emptying two more silos can add a third type of fodder.

But even this is not all.

For supplementary vitamins and hormones, at an added expense of $1 ,000 a month, also drop into the riving augers.

At the bottom of the feed, all ingredients have been blended in one auger that propels the mixture up a steep incline and toward a feed bunk outside the barn.

The auger passes directly over the 120 -foot bunk.

At regular intervals, trap doors open automatically to distribute the feed to each animal.

In ten minutes, push -button farming has completed a job that would have taken five men working with pitchforks and buckets half a day to do.

For Warren North, the farm is his first love.

The second is the two -story pipe organ in the corner of his living room.

Here he sits often after the farm chores are done.

Twenty years ago, Warren North of Brookston, Indiana, had only his faith in himself, his farm, and the future.

He has found a good life from the good earth.

Identifier

F.2012-03-0877

Date Of Production

circa 1959

Abstract

Sound newsreel that features a farmer called Warren North who owns Green Ridge Farm in Brookstone, Indiana. He has spent $200,000 on new technology to ensure the smooth running of his farm. The footage shows him at work using these farming machines. He plows the land and uses a mechanical feeder to feed his cattle, enabling him to feed his livestock with the push of a button. Frank Koza won an award from the National Press Photographer Association with this newsreel.

Run Time

0:06:29

Format

16mm

Extent

249 feet

Color

B&W

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Distribution Print

Genre

Agriculture

Form

Newsreels

Subject

Farming
Agriculture
Livestock
Farms
Industry

Related Collections

SUBSERIES IV: Labor & Industry

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Indiana ➜ Brookstone

Main Credits

Koza, Frank (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

North, Warren (is participant)

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