Mobile apps for the mobile farmer

Apr 20, 2015

Latest innovations aim to make farmer’s lives easier

More and more industries are going away from traditional pen and paper and adopting the inevitable digital takeover to make their operations run more efficiently and increase profitability.

Farming and agriculture is no exception.

With all the information farmers need to have on hand at all times, mobile apps are quickly becoming just important a tool as a tractor or sprayer.

Here are a few of the newer apps either currently available or in production that could be helpful to farmers.

Smiley-Farmer
The app acts like an online data base that can provide the farmer with information and advice based on their location. It uses text messages to send and receive information such as crop diseases and solutions.

This app was part of the 2015 Space Apps Challenge – a global, two-day event where entrepreneurs and other enthusiasts show off their technological skills by designing and presenting mobile applications where it was Global Nominee #2.

Blueprint
This app is designed for anyone with a hog operation. It will provide users with research, new production methods, veterinarian input and more to ensure the hogs and the operation is healthy. It is currently available for Apple and Android devices.

For anyone else with agriculture and technology on the brain, the Silicon Valley AgTech Conference is scheduled for Monday, May 11, 2015.

The show will feature speakers including Glenda Humiston from the United States Department of Agriculture, Kiersten Stead representing Monsanto Growth Ventures and Bob Whitaker from Produce Marketing Association.

Join the conversation and tell us if you’ll be attending the AgTech Conference or if you’re interested in any of the apps mentioned above.

Be sure to check out the Farms.com apps page for more apps to help your farm be as successful as it can.

Farmer using a tablet

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.