The robots are coming! The robots are coming! And they're going to pick your apples, your oranges, your grapes and even your strawberries. Machines like the greenhouse tomato harvester being worked on at MIT will be more expensive than your kids, but maybe not as expensive as hiring outside help. That's the MIT tomato farm to the right.
     A story in the December 10 edition of The Economist takes a look at agribots and the challenges they face under actual field conditions. Factorybots have been on the job for decades, but they don't have to deal with swaying branches, sliding in mud or figuring out if a strawberry is ripe-red or just red. 
     Farmers who buy bots will definitely have to tailor their operations to accommodate their mechanical helpers, which have had significant impacts already on some crops. California raisin growers, for example, once needed 50,000 seasonal workers. Now, partly because of declining acreage but mostly because of mechanical harvesting, only 20,000 to 30,000 workers are needed. 
     To read The Economist report, click here: http://www.economist.com/search/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15048711 


     Every Friday is jinglebell day in Bristol, Vt. That's because Pat Palmer of Thornapple Farm comes 'round with his pair of four-year-old Percherons to pick up the trash. Jake and Jerry - they're the horses - pull a wagon through town to service the only known horse-drawn trash route in the country. Elizabeth Ferry, Lancaster Farming Vermont correspondent, paid a visit to Pat, Jake and Jerry and wrote a report for our current edition. Or you can read it here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2692 


     You should see the hare-brained idea they came up with for the dwarf kangaroo. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/troubled-zoo-makes-its-own-zebras/ufer54nq


     You will enjoy good health; that is your form of wealth. That's what the fortune in my cookie said today. Okay, but I could do with a case of the sniffles now and then.