Throughout history of settled humans, Farmers have always been at the brink of technological progress. The wheel, the plow, and all sorts of machines. It's a common theme to depict them as technologically backwards, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Another common but misguided theme is to depict them as stupid, which they aren't in any form or fashion. They know when something is harmful to them, and this is an instance.
You would think we would see more automation and fewer cows being milked by hand were this true.
And most farms in the US are highly automated: automated sprinklers, automated tractors, automated planters, automated harvesters (of crops that are amenable to machine harvesting).
It's simply that there are a lot of food crops that are trivial for humans to harvest by hand that would require very expensive machinery and technology to accomplish with a machine.
I can’t imagine how tough it is to farm for your livelihood. The pressure on farmers must be brutal - from John Deere making it impossible to fix/own your own tractor[0] to climate change, and now your landlord might not renew your lease.
At that point, why put so much effort into something with so little upside and so much downside for the farmer.
[0] https://www.wired.com/2015/04/dmca-ownership-john-deere/