My initial notion of a wheat harvest wasn't too far removed from my grade school lessons of the first Thanksgiving enjoyed by the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. What greeted me on Gary Wagner's property that he farms in partnership with his two brothers was something entirely different. One would have immediately guessed their location to be a computer lab instead of the biggest combine John Deere has on the market.

The technology contained inside the cab (cockpit is closer in terms of technical visuals) of Mr. Wager's tractor has completely revolutionized the way he executes his fertilizing, planting, and harvesting. Inside the cab is an intricate series of computer screens and knobs of which Mr. Wagner knows well and even teaches a class at the local college training a new generation of farmers on this equipment. The screens allows Mr. Wagner to monitor his speed, the protein content of the wheat (which controls its price at the market), and bushels per acre. Generally, there is an inverse relationship between bushels and protein content - so the city girl who had to beg her way out of a math class at her fancy liberal arts college learned. The combine can literally drive itself if programmed to do so. It cannot make coffee - yet.

During last year's harvest, he was able to collect detailed information from the field about the nutritional content of the wheat, map this information, and then apply the appropriate amounts of fertilizer based on the mapping yields. He commented to me that this is all information that his father knew about the fields from years of working the soil. This information passed away when his father did. The modern technology employed on his farm today means the information can be passed down through the generations creating a new kind of tradition. It also means that Mr. Wagner can do more on less land and feed more people.

I was immediately curious about all of the technology on board, but as my questions were answered a trance settled in as I watched the combine process the acres of amber waves of grain. Even with all of the technology on board this $300,000 piece of equipment, it is still a choreographed tango between the combine driver and grain bin driver move the grain from the combine to the grain bin. Precious moments of harvest daylight cannot be lost in bungle some crop transfer. This transfer process is the equivalent of refueling Air Force One in the middle of the night at 40,000 feet.

The majority of this article has been focused on how the advances in technology have revolutionized Mr. Wagner's family farm. We're Americans and have always been a people committed to moving forward, so it only seems natural to write about progress in the nation's farming communities. However, I would be remiss if I didn't also write about something a little more traditional on the farm - the farmer's pride in his crop.

I mentioned earlier the inverse relationship between the protein content of the wheat and the per acre yield. If I had visited wheat farms last year, I would have seen much sparser fields with no grand visions of amber waves of grain…it would have been mostly brown sticks of wheat, but with very high protein content bringing more money at the marketplace. One would think that farmers would be excited about this. My literal "field research" revealed that the farmers view their farms as store fronts, and this year the farmers are delighted that the land they worked so hard to cultivate is producing a robust crop - even if it doesn't bring as much at the market.

It made me think about the store-fronts in my life - what's yours?

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