The Rural Voice, 1983-03, Page 11T
EDIT1PUTERS :
On the farm
"Everything is really in a state of
mass confusion right now," Randy
Ross of Ridgetown College of Agricul-
ture Technology told a poultry seminar
sponsored by The Ontario Egg Produ-
cers' Marketing Board.
The computer age is still only dawn-
ing and much of the confusion stems
from the fact it is still so new. Ross
reminded the audience the first com-
puter was built only 37 years ago, in
1946; micro -computers didn't come on-
to the market until 1977 and sales didn't
take off until about three years ago. He
cited a recent business study indicating
there are about 500 companies now
producing computers for this growing
market: the study also predicted nine of
these companies will survive the next
10 years.
Less than three per cent of Ontario
farmers now own micro -computers.
Ross said. and far fewer are actually
using them. And there is little sense in
spending a good hunk of money to buy
a micro -computer for the farm if there
isn't someone around who enjoys using
it, because it won't get used.
If you've decided to invest, Ross
recommends buying the software pro-
grams first, then the computer, rather
than vice -versa which is the usual
consumer approach, because it is what
a computer will do for you that is of
prime importance. There isn't much
difference in the hardware. He suggests
the farmer make a checklist before
buying and divide it into two main cate-
gories: What am I doing now that I can
do by computer? And; What do I want
to do now or in the future by computer?
Anything important enough to do by
hand is probably important enough to
do by computer, Ross said, so the
answers to the first question should be
"musts" in the computer and programs
purchased. As for the second question,
shop around and find a package that
includes "most" of the things you want
to do. 'Murphy's law' holds for compu-
ters he added, so experiment before
buying and shop for a model that is not
easy to screw up.
Minimum computer memory capacity,
measured in Ks, is increasing dramati-
cally all the time and is a bargain at the
prices being offered. so Ross recom-
mends medium-sized farmers now pur-
chase a computer with a maximum of at
least 64 Ks. Computer memory is the
kind of thing that the more you have,
the more you want, the more you use,
he said, so in a couple of years he
might be recommending a top end of
128 Ks.
He cautioned potential buyers to be
sure of what they want because the
lifetime of a particular model of micro-
computer now averages about 18
months before it is replaced by a
newer, improved model.
It will probably cost at least $5,000 to
$6,000 for a competent computer, plus
another $2,000 to $3,000 for the pro-
grams. So the average cost of about
$10,000 for the total package is as good
a reason as any for farmers to beware
and just sit around and watch what is
happening these days in the micro-
computer business.
Ross also advised that Revenue Can-
ada will consider a farm computer as a
class 10 asset, like a tractor, subject to
a 30 per cent writeoff, come income tax
time. Software is considered a class 12
asset, like small tools, and subject to a
100 per cent write off. Computers can
also be an educational tool or enter-
tainment and this might also be consid-
ered by a farmer before buying. but
Ross said the computer must be used
for legitimate farm business purposes
because the tax write offs wouldn't
apply to full-time Atari Warriors.
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THE RURAL VOICE, MARCH 1983 PG. 11