"The main cost is fuel and other chemical inputs, and the mortgage on the land itself." Don't forget the capital investment for the actual machines, and the R&

"The main cost is fuel and other chemical inputs, and the mortgage on the land itself." Don't forget the capital investment for the actual machines, and the R&D spending required to even make them available. The big reason we do have a lot of our farming automated is because it was profitable to spend upfront capital on automation instead of manual labor which became inefficient/obsolete in that regard.