Driving along the road recently in LaPorte County, I saw something you don't see every day in corn and soybean country. There was a tractor growing across the field very slowly, pulling a machine that looked like it had a tent over it. People rode on the machine. In its wake were rows of green plants, not bare soil with seed tucked underneath. They were planting tomatoes, so I stopped to get a closer look.

What is that cart with a canopy- I found out when I stopped by the field that it is a modern-day tomato setter, with the canopy keeping the sun off the people making sure to drop the tomatoes in so they're set at the proper time.

The grower planting the field contracts with Red Gold, based in Indiana, and one of the leading tomato processing companies in the country. The field where I stopped to watch was actually leased from another farmer, who has only been growing tomatoes for a short time. The plants were about 8 to 10 inches tall, and firmly planted by the setter machine.

It turns out that even tomato growers rely on technology these days. Instead of markers on the machine, they use GPS guidance to determine where to place the rows. As luck would have it, when I stopped the GPS was having issues. The repairman was on the way, but since it was prime planting time, the grower wasn't waiting for him to get there, and instead kept planting. The only downside was rows that looked like I planted them with the old marker system on the John Deere 494A corn planter back when I first learned how to drive.

When the system works right, he assured me that the rows were straight. Every system has its' off days, and this was one for the system he was using.

Indiana is a leading tomato growing state. Scenes like the one I ran across are even showing up in south-central Indiana, especially under irrigation. Tomatoes are a labor-intensive, input intensive crop, but also offer good rewards in a good year. They also help farmers diversify their operation, noted the farmer I stopped and visited with along the road.