The city of Hammond is redeveloping the downtown area into a business and professional center built around high-tech and other retail establishments. Kaczka said they want to provide the infrastructure in Hammond to allow businesses to be competitive in a global society. We need to access high-speed lines and connectivity to the infrastructure. Agriculture's involvement Fair Oaks Dairy Farm and the Bos Family Farms are two of several large dairy farmers who have moved into Northern Indiana. The dairies utilize the latest in technological equipment, including a 72-stall rotary parlor equipped with automatic identification and automatic detachers.
Cows enter the parlor and ride around on the carousel driven by three hydraulic powered wheels.
Cows wear collars with transponders, a computerized necklace, that transmit the cow's identification and records motion. Electronic animal identification also allows the cows to be automatically routed back to the barn or to treatment or breeding areas as they leave the parlor after milking. Manure management is important, and dairy farmers scrape manure to a concrete pit, where it is pumped into a tank for delivery to the field and for surface application as needed. Education's contribution Gerald Bradshaw, an instructor at Crown Point High School in Lake County, and Thomas Taylor, principal at Wheeler High School in Porter County, are in two areas where technology is heavily promoted in the schools. Wheeler provides training to teachers and staff for maintenance of school networks, and has a number of students who have excelled in the program and earned money with hands-on projects, earning them cash.