New smartphone app geared towards farmers

7/26/2010 11:48:00 AM
By: WJBC Staff

One of the biggest challenges each farmer faces is decisions related to marketing his grain and how those decisions will affect his bottom line. Farmer's Partner Android app for agriculture enables the farmer to calculate profitability based on where the grain markets are currently trading and to see how higher or lower grain markets will change his bottom line and his agribusiness.
“Farmers are known for being early adaptors of new technology,” says Heartland Farm Partners President Jeff Peterson. “But a few months ago when we looked for a smart phone app to help top producers manage their operation from their mobile phone, we were surprised there simply weren’t any apps designed for agriculture. So we decided to build one.”
Farmer’s Partner™ runs on Android phones and enables a farmer to input dozens of variables to create a complete overview of the farm operation. Commodities pricing and breaking news are also built into the app, giving the producer both historic and up-to-date information to allow him to make the best decisions on grain marketing. Farmer’s Partner™ is available through the Android marketplace.
Peterson, active in the grain marketing business for 18 years, is upbeat about the role he sees smart phones playing in the day-to-day working life of today’s farmer. “One of the biggest challenges each farmer faces is decisions related to marketing his grain and how those decisions will affect his bottom line. This program will enable the farmer to calculate his profitability based on where the markets are currently trading and to see how higher or lower markets will change his bottom line. Farmers always look for the right tool to fit the job at hand. As the adoption of smartphones continues to increase among farm producers we’ll no doubt see many apps serving the Ag market. The smartphone will become just another essential tool in the field, cab or pickup.”
“We partnered with AppChoice to build our app. The AppChoice founders both grew up on farms and understand the unique challenges farmers face.”
AppChoice Co-Founder and Senior Developer, Bruce Gordon, commented: “Apps are rapidly moving from the era of cute games into fully interactive databases that are functional and extremely user-friendly. A good app runs quietly in the background of the user’s everyday life. The Farmer’s Partner™ Ag app combines the best elements of smartphone portability with database computing. The app allows you to carry much of what you would ordinarily put on a laptop, but will fit in your shirt pocket.
When asked about future updates for the Farmer’s Partner™ smartphone Ag app, Gordon commented: “We expect and encourage feedback from users out in the field. We build in as many features as we think the farmer will need, but of course once people start using it there are bound to be future features that we can add, based on their feedback.”

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