It doesn't hurt to think about these things as the cost of fuel could become prohibitively expensive. At some price hitching the plow to old Nelly makes sense. I find the discussion worth having, since our energy policy is insane and getting crazier by the day.
////It doesn’t hurt to think about these things as the cost of fuel could become prohibitively expensive.\\\\
How else do you think that Farming methods have advanced to where they are today? The increase of operating costs inspired a much higher rate of efficiency.
The cost will never become “prohibitively expensive” because new methods and technological developments will continue to advance to offset the increased costs.
It’s like drilling for Oil. The technology allows us to drill wells that would have been considered impossible just 10 years ago. The result is a much lower cost to produce a barrel of Oil in spite of the much higher increased cost to drill.
There are metrics in agriculture for dollar value, BTU-value, water value and HP per commodity produced.
Run the numbers, but generally speaking all of those products are translatable to a BTU-dollar.
If a tractor costs more to operate with higher fuel prices, so does the cost bringing water to the oxen.
Solar and alternative power systems are notoriously inefficient compared with petroleum fuels. Without subsidies, those systems are not economical to initially install and still are inadequate to sustain including demolition and replacement costs.
Economies of scale generally prevail.