Farm Management, There’s An App For That!
May 13, 2014
In a world that allows technology to be at your fingertips, it is no wonder the farming community is utilizing this technology by offering applications for smartphones to keep track of all aspects of farming operations from grain to livestock and everything in between. My father, who has been farming all of his life, recently bought his own smartphone and was hoping to get applications for this very purpose. So, I helped him find some of these apps and thought I’d share them with you. Here is a list of some of the popular applications that you are able to use for your own farm managing benefit.
FarmLogs – This free app is available for apple and android devices and it allows users to easily keep a log of events that happen in the field, the shop, or anywhere else they want to keep track of. One of the benefits to this app is that multiple users can log information in, allowing everyone to see updates in real time. This app is fairly new, but the ratings have been high up to this point.
Farm Manager – This free app is available for both apple and android devices. Farm Manager allows users to keep a full history of crops from when they are planted to when they are harvested. It also can keep records of chemicals and fertilizers applied, full details of livestock, full details of machinery, including service dates, and then you can also store pictures of machinery and crops that link to your data. It appears to record all the information on pages that are similar to apple’s note pages, making it pretty simple to use. One downside to this app is that you will have to pay a fee if you wish to sync the data with their cloud services, but otherwise everything is free.
YieldCheck – This free app is available for apple devices and it allows farmers to calculate and store corn yield estimates and can organize this data by client, farm, or even post detailes of a specific field. It can differentiate the field locations by using satellite imagery. The overall goal this app hopes to achieve is allowing users to see how much they can benefit from an additional ear of corn per acre. While I have not personally used this app, there have been several positive reviews.
Cash Grain Bids – This free app is available for apple and android devices and it allows users to simply put in their zip code and find cash bids and base levels of grain from the five closest elevators in your area. This application has some setbacks because you are not able to directly choose the elevators you wish to view, but a majority of the users say that it is simple but effective. On the downside this app is still new and has some more bugs to work out.
CheckIt – This free app is available for apple and android devices and it allows users to take a picture of a crop and it identifies nutrient deficiencies in that plant. Farmers can use this information to apply the needed nutrients to the crops so they can maximize their yield when it comes time to harvest.
Livestock Manager – This app costs $14.99 and is only available on apple products. It allows users to categorize their livestock by five different classes: cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and pigs. Once categorized, you are able to add a picture of each animal along with any other information that you would like to store from date of birth, to calving and breeding history, to vaccination history. One added bonus is the ability to link your animals with social media to market your animals effortlessly.
As an accountant I appreciate how these apps can help keep everything organized and hopefully can make you even more profitable!
Do you have an opinion on any of these applications or have any recommendations of apps you are currently using?
By: Ellie Simon, Staff Accountant
Categories: Agribusiness