Farms and Networking in the 1990's
I worked for various semiconductor companies in the 1990's. One company based in Silicon Valley, I had to argue relentlessly to get them to invest in farm networking. They visualized farms as backwards technology with no computers. They were very wrong.
The reality was starkly different - each tractor, combine, harvester was fitted with a small computer with a GPS. They communicated back to the main house via a wireless network (not WiFi 802.11/?) so that the GPS could report exactly when, where, and what was planted, seeded, fertilized, mowed, harvested. Crop diseases were mapped and tracked over time. Exact maps of when, where, and what was watered, including rain, was critical because water was a massive expense. Which animals were fed, from what feed lot they were fed, and when was logged. The amount of milk per cow per time of day was measured. Electronics were everywhere. It was a massive investment in semiconductors.
Only "the company previously known as Motorola" and Texas Instruments had an investment in farms and they did a very smart job of hiding that from their competitors. Very interesting technology.