Download Smartphones: A smart tool for your farm business, January 2013

NNY Farm Business Management Team
2013
Smartphones — A Smart Tool for Your Farm Business
By Peggy Murray, [email protected]
Farmers today are using their smartphone to stay connected whether they are in
the tractor, in the barn, or away from the farm. A smartphone is a phone that also has
internet capabilities, a camera, email, and many other web applications. It is fast
becoming a very important tool on the farm.
I have been asking the farmers who have smartphones what they use them for.
Many use it to keep up-to-date on the weather; as I am writing this, they are wishing it
could do a rain dance to produce rain. A couple of the apps that farmers use to track
weather are Weather Channel and Weatherzone Plus. They not only give you the weekly
forecast but an up-to-date three hour forecast.
Farmers also use their phone to keep up-to-date on the markets. Dairy Source by
Elanco, and Dairy Market Central by Merk are just a couple of the apps. Both of these
give you real-time market reports, including milk futures, cheese, corn, oil, and soybean
prices. You can also get the weather and current up-to-date news relating to the dairy
industry.
Smartphones have cameras built in and when a part is needed for a piece of
equipment, farmers just take a picture of the part and the serial number of the equipment
and take their phone to the equipment dealer to get the part. Take a picture of a tile line,
water line, sewer line before it is buried so you will always have the record of where it is.
Iconvertfree lets you convert feet to meters, acres to hectors, gallons to liters, and much
more. Ezloan calc calculates loans, interest payments, and monthly payments.
Want to know where your dairy products that you bought were made? Dairy Ping
will do that. Just put in the plant number and it will deliver to you where it was
processed.
Need a phone number or address of a business – Yellow Pages (YP Mobile) will
give you that without having to go back to the house to look it up.
Never have batteries in a flashlight or remember where you put the flashlight?
You can have a flash light app that will allow you to always have a flashlight handy.
Need to be able to communicate to someone who does not speak English,
Itranslate converts English to the other language.
Google Earth will give you a satellite view of your farm.
There are also many apps for agronomy. Soil Test Pro helps with soil testing;
Farm Pad enters farm records, service logs, equipment service logs, and takes notes or
pictures. Icrop Trak is an integrated agronomy service.
If you don’t like the music on the local station, Pandora Radio lets you listen to
the music of your choice.
Want to keep track of your favorite sports team? The Sports Center app gives you
up-to-date scores.
These are just a few of the many things a smartphone can do; it is and will
continue to be, an important tool on the farm. Many apps are free, but there are some
fees for others. You have to decide whether the app is worth the cost.
For more information, visit the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Northern New
York website at www.ccenny.com. Cornell Cooperative Extension provides equal
program and employment opportunities.
Building Strong and Vibrant New York Communities
Cornell Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities. NYS College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences, NYS College of Human Ecology, and NYS College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University,
Cooperative Extension associates, county governing bodies, and U.S. Department of Agriculture, cooperating.