This month's Strak Report takes the words of the US economist William Cochrane and adapts them for the 21st century. Those words, of course, originally referred to the 'technological treadmill' of farming. Cochrane's treadmill analogy appeared in 1965 but it has stood the test of time as farmers have, month by month and year by year, implemented new and more effective ways of doing things. Usually this has involved new equipment or management practices using new inputs and services. Vorsprung durchtechnik, as the Germans helpfully remind us, and UK farmers have consistently applied technik to their enterprises in order to reduce costs and increase productivity.
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