Ag apps you like

[jwalter58]

Hi, folks: I'm working on a story for Successful Farming on apps--mobile or online--that farmers can use to improve their business management. They could relate to any aspect of farming--agronomy, accounting, communications, record keeping, marketing and so on. 

I read once that smartphone users typically have an average of 30 apps downloaded to their devices, but only use about three of them. I think that's the case for me. Most of the ones I use rather frequently don't have anything directly to do with ag, but they do help with productivity--Google Drive for storing documents, a mapping program for travel, and one for local online banking. There are a few others, too. I have used Evernote for a long time to take notes and create reminders. I'm trying out bizNote for tracking business expenses. SoilWeb has long fascinated me for all the detailed soils info you can glean from any ground you're standing on. And good old Flashlight has come in handy many a time when in need for a little light.

Sure would appreciate some input you might have on any ag apps that you use at least once in a while. 

Thanks in advance for the help....

John Walter

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

Hi, John, good to see you on again.

Your comments look about right to me.  

I use the camera for a notepad quite a bit.  Jot something down and take a picture of it.  Or take pictures of plants or such that I want to send to others for comment.

I use the calculator a lot of the time.

I use the bank apps less than I used to.  Map programs I use on occasion when traveling but I don't use them often.  In fact, I have the location function turned off most of the time.

Over the years, I've looked at ag apps on and off and have downloaded a few, but find they are hard to use or it's easier to get the info some other way.

Apps are scrunched up on the screen and sometimes hard for my fat fingers to work.  Maybe for that reason, I tend to rely on the desktop computer and big screen if I am in the office.

There is no doubt I could do more if I knew more about how to use the cellphone.  

One reason I don't use some apps much is I'm not a fan of computing in the cloud, so I don't store or retrieve things there very much.  

I'll be interested to see the results of your investigation and I hope some apps prove useful and compelling.

Having said all that, here are some functions I'd like to do more on the cellphone.

1.  Marketing info, especiallly up-to-date quotes.  I get some of that via text message now.

2.  Weather.  I've never found a weather cellphone app I like.

3.  Field notes:  Something informed by the field notebooks that universities and seed companies used to put out.  

4.  Conversion factos.  Everything from tables for fraction to thousands to metric to wire sizes and voltage drop to field sizes (it is probably symptomatic of my unhappiness with this info that I calculate acres in my head usin chains and furlongs as being faster than anything I can find on the web).

Maybe what I want is more like a miniature tablet that would fit in my pocket and a separate cell phone that was pretty basic in operation.

good luck on your article.  I look forward to seeing it.