In 1932, J. O. Smith, Agricultural Engineer at Delta Branch Experiment Station in Stoneville, MS, attached a small anhydrous ammonia cylinder to a plow in such a manner that the NH3 was released in the soil. The plow, a Georgia Stock, was pulled by a gray mule named Ike. This was the first known use of anhydrous ammonia as a soil-applied crop fertilizer. The crude apparatus and the anhydrous ammonia it applied provided a much needed source of nitrogen for the otherwise rich alluvial soils of the Mississippi Delta.
ASABE
Term Image
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/thirteenofclubs (CC BY-SA 2.0)Image Caption: Anhydrous Ammonia is one of the cheapest forms of nitrogen fertilizer available on the market. However because it is such a hazardous material and is difficult to apply, many farmers choose to hire third party businesses to store and apply the fertilizer.
2011
A crucial step in the evolution of modern plant agriculture was the development of low-cost, energy-efficient greenhouse structures that provide optimum growing conditions year-round. In 1964, Professor William J. Roberts developed the first air-inflated double-layer polyethylene greenhouse covering system at Cook College, Rutgers University.
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Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Dwight Sipler (CC BY 2.0)Image Caption: A cat scales an air-inflated double-layered polyethylene greenhouse
2004
American Society of Agricultural Engineers Founded in this Building December 27, 1907
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Image Credit: Courtesy Wikicommons/James Steakley (CC BY-SA 3.0)
1982
Agricultural Aviation Began In 1921 When C. R. Neillie Got A Military Plane To Dust Catalpa Trees Near Troy, OH. In 1922 B. R. Coad And C. E. Wollman Began Research At Tallulah, LA To Control Boll Weevils In Cotton. They Developed Equipment Using Venturi Induction, Ram Air Pressure And Hopper Agitation. G. B. Post And Wollman Made The First Commercial Dust Applications In Macon, Ga In 1924. In 1925, 18 Aircraft Treated 60,000 Acres Of Cotton Across The South. In 1928, Delta Air Service Was Organized.
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1995
McCormick was born on the 620-acre farm known historically as “Walnut Grove Farm” in 1809. He built the first practical grain reaper, which was successfully demonstrated in a field of oats owned by John Steele in nearby Steeles Tavern in 1831.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural Research and Extension Center.Image Caption: The McCormick reaper was first demonstrated at the Walnut Grove Farm in Virginia.Era_date_from: 1831
1972
"The development of the cotton picker was the most important single factor which enabled the American cotton industry to stay alive," observed Dr. George S. Buck, Jr., director of research for the National Cotton Council recenty.
Some 96% of the 1969 U.S. cotton crop was harvested by machines, points out J.W. Wegener, manager of International Harvester's Memphis Works manager.
"Old Red" was built by International Harvester in 1943, retired in 1959, and restored in 1964.
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Image Credit: Photo Courtesy of ASABEImage Caption: "Old Red" now resides in the National Museum of History & Technology, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Era_date_from: 1943
1978
Frank Zybach, a tenant farmer and inventor living near Strasburg, Colorado, received a patent for a "Self-Propelled Sprinkling Irrigating Apparatus" on July 22, 1952.
The device used mobile towers to continuously move a pipeline in a circle around a pivot. Water was supplied through the pivot and distributed by sprinklers on the pipeline. Zybach formed a partnership with A.E. Trowbridge, an entrepreneur-businessman, in 1953 to manufacture center pivots in Columbus, Nebraska.
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Image Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture photoImage Caption: The Center Pivot Irrigator transformed agricultural production throughout the world.Era_date_from: 1952
1993
Cotton was once transported from farms to gins by wagons, trucks or trailers. Long waits to unload at the gin stalled harvests until haulers could return to the fields.
Professor Lambert Wilkes of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, Texas A&M University, developed the Cotton Module Builder between 1971 and 1974 with the support of J.K. (Farmer) Jones of Cotton Incorporated. The modules created by the Cotton Module Builder withstood weather, and after transport, the cotton could be easily fed into the gin. Dr.
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Image Credit: Photo by Beaver (Thomas John Macartney)Image Caption: The cotton module builder revolutionized the cotton industry.Era_date_from: 1971
2002
Innovations
