The development of computers has impacted the agricultural industry as it has almost every productive activity in the western world. A computerized system called Automatic Defect Removal has enabled potato processors to eliminate most of the hand labor of trimming defects from potatoes that are to become French fries and other processed products. Use of automated controls on nearly every phase of processing has likewise accomplished savings in labor cost and tightened tolerances for higher quality. On the farm, controls of temperature, humidity and air movement in potato storage buildings are now under the ever-alert monitoring of computers as are some sprinkler irrigation systems. Scheduling or irrigation is also optimized by government-owned computers that calculate the amount of moisture plants have used and how much has evaporated by temperature and wind.
Growers use the information to regulate the quantity of water they put on crops accordingly.
A new irrigation system is currently under development in which individual sprinkler nozzles can be automatically controlled to supply more or less water to each section of the field as the center pivot system passes over it. The water-need information comes from infrared aerial photographs which show the relative wetness or dryness of every part of the field. Scanning the photograph into a computer enables it to automatically change application rates of each nozzle on the sprinkler system to provide exactly the amount of water needed. Computers have steadily increased their usefulness to fresh shippers in optical sizing and grading functions. Machines that fill consumer-size bags now depend on electronic brains to get the weight of the contents exact without underweights and a minimum of overweights.