Are You Using Farm Business Management "Apps" on Your Farm?

The Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management is a joint virtual centre of the Farm Management Departments at both Massey & Lincoln Universities in New Zealand. The Centre is conducting a number of research projects in Farm Business Management. One of those projects is investigating what Apps (Applications) are available for IPhones/IPads & Android mobile phones. Apps or “Applications” are clever or smart little computer programs that run on these new Smart Mobile Phones. Smart Phones are really hand held computers. Not only can you make the usual phone calls & text messages but you can receive emails, connect to social media & use these Apps to calculate or replace many of the tools you would otherwise have to carry separately or go back to your computer in your house or farm office. It will amaze you what can now be done on a Smart Phone!

You might question “why use your phone to do these tasks?” and I think there are two main answers to that question. Most farmers now carry their mobile phones everywhere they go, so the phone is always in your pocket. Secondly, the technology is becoming incredibly sophisticated.

Hamish Hammond a young recent Massey University Agricultural graduate is conducting the Apps research for the Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management. Hamish is a very promising young NZ athlete,(World Champion 20-24 age group Triathlete at Beijing 2011) http://www.triathlon.org.nz/news?id=342 so between training runs he is hard at work on his Iphone searching for Apps that might be useful for dairy farmers. http://tvnz.co.nz/contact-tri-tv/s2011-ep2-video-4697732?fb_ref=facelike&fb_source=profile_oneline 

Hamish has linked up with Nico Lyons & Rene Kolbach at University of Sydney's Camden Campus who are conducting a very similar search for Farm based Apps. They presented a very lively session (sponsored by the Gardiner Foundation, Dairy Australia) at the recent Australian Dairy Conference. http://www.gardinerfoundation.com.au/attachments/GF%20FlexBusProgram.pdf 

At a recent dairy farm Discussion Group I attended about a third of the group already had either an iphone(Apple product) or an Android(Google system) phone.  The majority of the rest of the group expected to upgrade to a smart phone within 12 months. If this is the pattern across all Discussion Groups & farmers in general it will mean that the vast majority of farmers could potentially be using Smart Phones within a 1-2 year horizon.

Hamish has been researching ipad/iphone and android applications that could be relevant for dairy farmers (in particular New Zealand farmers). He has compiled a list below of some of the Ipad/Iphone applications that he has found. Most are free but some are not. Feedback about the applications would be beneficial for his research and therefore I encourage everyone to download these, have a go. Please post your comments at the bottom of this blog. Please search the name of the app on your device app store. Most of these are available on both android and ipad devices.

F-Track Live

Protrack

Pro Dairy event

Pro Cattle Breeding

TankMix Calculator

Crystalyx: CowBCS

Geo Measure

Map Measure

Coopers Animal Health

MetService Weather

Agricultural Glossary

Fertility improvement profit calculator

SumIt

Ranch Calculator

AgriMoney

Dairysource

Farm Manager

Farm Contractor

IFarmer: Inventory

Pocket Wedge

LandView

Iareacalc

Lemon

The Smart phone technology is changing daily, so too are the Apps that are being written & released. Most are available for both Apple & Google systems & most are free. If you have been using an App that’s not on Hamish’s list perhaps you would leave a comment (see below). Thank you that would be very helpful for us & ultimately all dairy farmers. Try the above list & give us your feedback.
Soon the Centre of Excellence in Farm Business Management will have an interactive website to be known as "OneFarm"