Too Old for Back to School?

Aug 29, 2014

You’re never too old to learn things that will help your farming business.

Are you, like me, in the 50+ category? Do you feel intimidated by technology? If your son or daughter is not there, are you capable of downloading an app or changing anything on your phone? As the kids are settling in back at school, I challenge you to conquer your phone and make it just another one of the tools that any farmer has on hand.

Today almost everyone has a cell phone. But do you have a smart phone, and if you do, are you utilizing it to help run your business better? According to statistics from Pew (January 2014), 90% of adults have a cell phone. The majority of people, 58%, now own a smart phone. A smart phone is a handy thing, particularly for farmers. It can help you to accomplish a number of tasks while you are in the field.

Cell phones are great for checking the latest agriculture news as you are in the field. In addition to checking websites to determine the price of cash crops, etc., many services now exist to receive price updates via text messaging and other things. You can even follow the price of cash crops on twitter – which you can have on your smart phone.

By now you have heard the expression “There’s an app for that.” While in the early days of apps, there was not a large number of Apps for the agriculture and farming industries – more and more farm apps exist and can be quite useful. Farms.com has a complete list of agriculture apps.

In the early days of apps, you could often only find an app in one platform, but today, most apps are available for Android and Apple. For example, the Farms.com Used Equipment app lets you easily search for used farm equipment in your area (Ontario), without having to surf the web.

There are lots of great apps out there, some specific to farming, some just great tools. If you have a great app that you find particularly useful for farming, share your thoughts with us, we would love to share your app suggestions with other farmers.

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Video: Exploring Precision Data in Swine Production - Dr. Janice Siegford

In this episode of The Swine it Podcast Show, Dr. Janice Siegford from Michigan State University discusses how precision livestock farming data can support pig health, welfare, transparency, and decision making. She explains why data ownership, privacy, consumer perception, and cost sharing must be addressed as technology becomes more common on farms. Listen now on all major platforms.

“Precision livestock farming data can support producers, veterinarians, certifiers, and consumers by enabling improved monitoring, prediction, and decision-making across the entire production system.”

Meet the guest: Dr. Janice Siegford / janice-siegford-24318839 is a Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Animal Science at Michigan State University. Her expertise in animal welfare, neuroscience, and zoology supports research on pig behavior, stress resilience, and precision livestock farming. Her work explores early weaning, genetics, and stakeholder perspectives on technology adoption to improve pig care, health, and productivity. Learn more from Dr. Janice Siegford on The Swine it Podcast Show, available on all major platforms.