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RANCH MUSINGS: Open minds to technology

As each new generation comes into adulthood, a smaller percentage can claim roots in agriculture
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David Zirnhelt writes a weekly column for Black Press newspapers throughout the Cariboo Chilcotin and North Thompson. (Black Press image)

British Columbians are more divided than ever into Lower Mainland (604 phone prefix) and the rest of the province (250). Every trip I make to the big urban centres and even some of our small-town places, I realize how isolated and detached from the rural environment our society in Canada has become.

As each new generation comes into adulthood, a smaller percentage can claim roots in agriculture, and increasingly forestry or other rural based and subsistence livelihoods.

To me this alienation can be only slightly overcome by recreational exposure to the outback of our world. Yes, one can travel by google earth anywhere you want to go. But it is mostly just our visual sense that is stimulated. The smells tastes and touches are not coming to us this way.

Devotees of the virtual world where we don a helmet or googles and explore will say this is good place to dwell. They even say that soon we might be safer putting googles on and allowing a devise to watch out for traffic and other hazards when walking down the sidewalk—superhuman sensing.

I wonder if the nine billion people on earth were walking on the land or in the forests, would the natural world be even intact and healthily functioning even such as it is. Many areas are degraded i.e. the loss of grasslands and Amazon forests to mention two landscapes.

Hard to imagine the vast majority not living in cities, or as they are referred to as “concrete jungles”.

Ever heard of “regenerative agrourbanism? It is ”experiencing edible placemaking transforming neglected or damaged landcapes, lives, and livelihoods: A web-enhanced book.”  Author is Robert L. France

I am tempted to get the book so I can stay on top of some of the new technologies assisting meta dwellers to understand where their food comes from.

I must say that as far as ranching is concerned there are some technologies that may well help us farm better. Certainly, connecting us all to innovative farms is helpful because we can’t all leave the ranch to learn.

I have written about virtual fencing where cattle wear a collar and they get a signal when they stray from the virtual pasture they are supposed to stay in until it is time to move them, taking down or moving the virtual fence allows cows to move themselves into the next pasture.

A second technology –drones—are proving to do seeding, fertilizing, and weed control in a cost-effective way. A local ranch up the Fraser River (Roddie Creek Ranch) has been doing just this. They are also grazing standing corn so cattle can feed themselves all winter.

I encourage innovators to always do the numbers so we can potentially use these innovations to benefit the bottom line. Information and communications are a growing line item on the cost side of the ledger.

What should be the rule on limiting our time in the virtual world? A couple of hours a day. I know a six or even eight hours day outside on the land and with the livestock is not enough.

Technology does need to be the tail that the farmer dog wags.