In fact for many years, it has been highly illegal with stiff ramifications, if a farmer tried to open the proprietary software inside a machine he might own. In actuality, they are mostly leasing them and then leasing newer every few years. No one’s house is worth what these MONSTERS cost in this era. You used to be able to buy the whole FARM for those prices. But then, farming was always extremely expensive…and with fairly high risk. These days, big hot-shot important folks can descend upon farms that use some of these mega-machines.
The GPS deal has been around for a while too. My uncle told us about theirs ….a decade ago? I assume one has to manually drive once to make the route.
I’m no Luddite but …..there is something spooky about not really owning the stuff you buy. Very dependent on non-agri folks….like computer programmers. And it would seem economically unfeasible to make profit unless you owned half the county.
BTW, some of those I know using these are doing so as testing for Deere. Part of the Big Hot-Shot Important folks who come to observe. Going back to where I grew up…..almost nothing is recognizable. Wheww!
And who sets of a photo shot of the dumb machine running over the rows of crop? Pffft!
OldMtWoman ….and I didn’t come from the horse-drawn days..