Input costs were not cut in halves or quarters, however, because to get the increased yield required more seed per acre, more fertilizer per acre, more water per acre, more labor per acre, and more management per acre. And the hybrids are usually less nutritious than properly raised open-pollinated corn. It is difficult to adapt only one piece of technology at a time because a farm is a living biological unit, and whatever you do to one piece of it affects the whole. Increasing crop acreage reduces livestock numbers, along with the fertilizer and organic matter they product. More soil nutrients will be transported off the farm with the cash sale of grain, instead of running it through livestock and returning the minerals and nutrients to the farm soil in the form of manure.
New technology is management-intensive.
People with greater skills will get the greatest advantage. I am glad to see that Mr. Bullock believes that small farmers will get the greatest advantage. Surely the universities do not want only to serve themselves and their grant money partners, greedily suckling at the corporate money teats. New agricultural technology is capital-intensive. Yes, those new pieces of equipment have big price tags, but new agricultural technology is not always capital-intensive.