Economic analysis of U.S. farm mechanization

Extract: Agriculture in the United States can be characterized as one of the most mechanized in the world. For the last four decades the level of mechanization has dictated the direction in which our agriculture is moving. We at the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD) have undertaken a major two-part project to determine the future of mechanization in agriculture in the changing economic environment. The project treats the mechanization as a system interlinked to the other aspects of agriculture at the national and regional levels. This CARD report deals with the first part of the project which explains the changes in mechanization structure in terms of the machinery size, numbers, value, horsepower, productivity etc. in agriculture. This report further presents and discusses the results of the econometric analysis of the regional and national investments in tractors, harvesting machinery and other machinery.