The changes have come lightning quick in the nearly three decades since Missouri agricultural extension agents first preached the power of computers to skeptical farmers.

Gone are the bulky main frames, archaic floppy disks and bewildered stares that used to greet agricultural educators as they attempted to persuade farmers to embrace new technology. Computer-savvy cattlemen and crop farmers are lining up to try out the latest gadgets, from tractor-mounted mapping systems to market reports delivered as podcasts.

“Farmers are much more technologically savvy than people think,” said John Travlos, a University of Missouri extension agent. “They have to be. Agriculture is big business.”

From longtime computer users to novices looking for tips, farmers from across Missouri gathered Friday at a Lake of the Ozarks resort for the university’s annual farm computer users’ conference.

Topics ranged from basic spreadsheet use for managing finances to implementing “precision agriculture” techniques to maximize crop yields through computer-driven soil testing and fertilizer applications.

Robert Deal, a 57-year-old Malta Bend farmer, attended one of the first farm computer conferences in Missouri in 1979. He recalled the boxy IBM machines that could only store 16 megabytes of data, along with peers who didn’t quite understand the fuss.

Now, he said, “It’s about mandatory.”

Lifelong farmer Norman Brown of Aledo, Ill., started a company that specializes in farm-friendly software to compile crop summaries, cost analyses, livestock feeding schedules and other specialized applications. He attended the conference to sell his product, but also to listen.

“I’m here to learn what’s new,” he said. “As long as Bill Gates is in charge, something will be obsolete tomorrow.”

___

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) _ North Dakota exports of farm and construction machinery have more than doubled this decade, pushed in part by growing sales to three former Soviet republics, state trade officials say.

“It seems like they want to buy our machinery,” said Eric Moberg, an engineer at Lansford-based Gates Manufacturing Inc., which builds harrows, including one touted as the world’s heaviest. “As their agronomy practices catch up to speed, they want the same equipment we’re using here _ if they can afford it.”

Moberg said the former Soviet republics account for more than 10 percent of Gates’ business. The company employs about 15 people, he said.

North Dakota machinery exports in 2006 totaled $817 million, or 54 percent of the state’s total non-crop exports, said Jeff Zent, a North Dakota Trade Office spokesman. That compares with $401 million in machinery exports in 2001.

The export total for 2007 is incomplete, but machinery sales to other countries through September totaled $475 million, compared with $465 million during the same time in 2006, Zent said.

North Dakota’s biggest export markets for machinery are in Canada and Europe, Zent said. The fastest-growing markets are the ex-Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, he said.

Exports to those countries have risen from $1.2 million in 2001 to $81 million in 2006. Sales for the first nine months of 2007 totaled $98.9 million, the Trade Office said.

U.S farm machinery exports for the first six months of 2007 totaled $4.5 billion, up 9 percent from the same period in 2006, said Pat Monroe, a spokeswoman for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.

The West Allis, Wis.-based machinery trade group said Russia was the third-biggest importer of U.S.-made farm machinery for the first half of 2007, behind Mexico and Canada.

Russia imported $281 million in American farm machinery products through June 2007, a 112 percent increase from the previous year, Monroe said.