Canola Digest, January 2013 - SaskCanola

MARKET KNOW-HOW
INFORMATION AT
YOUR FINGERTIPS
By Shaun Haney
A growing number of farmers are benefiting from
the tools and convenience offered by the new world
of mobile technology. Guest contributor Shaun Haney
offers some tips on using mobile apps to help with
crop marketing and more.
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aving to convince farmers
about the value of smartphones is so
2010. Farmers are now looking for new
and better apps to help them manage
their farm operations. Whether you
are 20 or 60 years old, apps can play an
integral part in improving communication
and productivity, and increase the
accuracy of farm business decisions.
The goal of all of this is higher
profitability on the farm.
The app has truly brought the desktop
to the palm of our hand. Initially, many
apps had single operation functionality.
There are three things that have made
the possibility of agriculture-based apps
a reality on the farm or ranch today:
• New smartphone processing power:
With the ability to squeeze quad core
chips with 2 GHz processing speed
into an ultra-thin phone design,
programmers have been able to
essentially create mobile desktoplike
software.
• Cloud data servers: Cloud storage
allows for data to synchronize in real
time. Apps with the capability to
access data no different than a desktop
truly unleashes the power of an
agriculture-based app.
• Increase in 4G and LTE networks
in rural areas: Creating dynamic
agriculture apps is pointless without
the proper levels of bandwidth. This
is especially true for apps that require
heavy two-way data transfer.
Smartphones and apps provide the
opportunity to manage your email,
calendar and contacts while away from
your desktop. Being tied to your desktop
to make your calls and enter data into a
spreadsheet is history in the new world
“Being able to check on local grain prices is very valuable –
it puts the information at my fingertips.”
– Lee Markert
of mobile technology. What better
industry to prosper from the benefits
of mobile technology than agriculture?
Farmers and livestock producers require
significant time in their offices, which
are in the barns and fields. As mobile
technology has evolved and high-speed
data networks have become available in
rural areas, farmers can now access the
advantages of mobile like never before.
You no longer have to be in Toronto or
Vancouver to access high-speed 4G
data networks.
A great example of using apps or mobile
sites on the farm is in terms of crop
marketing. Being able to gather real-time
information without having to make a
phone call creates significant value for
the producer. Not too long ago, farmers
waited for the weekly farm publication to
update them on prices. Good marketing
decisions begin with accurate real-time
information, which today’s mobile
technology provides you.
Here is a list of some of the best apps
built specifically for farmers in
Western Canada: