Heavy farm equipment is now as heavy as the heaviest dinosaurs—and, surprisingly, there may be some similarities.

Today, a fully loaded combine weighs 60,000 pounds—or more!

Engineers have worked to distribute their increasing weight across the soil, widening the tires, sometimes putting three tires on each hub.

But research has shown these heavier machines compact not just the tilled topsoil but soil far beneath it, into the root zones of crops.

This heavy compaction can destroy soil structure: the pores of air space, fungi, insects, earthworms, and beneficial microbes that are essential to soil health and thriving plants. And this damage can persist for decades.

Likewise, the heaviest dinosaurs, tromping through vegetated areas for millions of years, must have compacted those soils, hampering growth of the food they depended on.

Scientists think their long necks may have been an adaptation to help them stay on established pathways and reach into untouched vegetation—much like elephants do today.

We may never know, but modern farmers are looking for machinery solutions that don’t compact the soil as much. They probably won’t have long necks—but they probably will stick to defined paths.

The most likely solution may be fleets of small robotic tractors, controlled remotely by one operator or autonomously, keeping to set patterns.

The farms of the future, informed by the giants of the past.