“Smartphone Apps for Smart Farmers v2” now available

Producers who want a hand sorting the wheat from the chaff when it comes to finding useful farming apps have a new guide: the second edition of Ag Excellence Alliance’s Smartphone Apps for Smart Farmers. The resource is being launched today, following the success of the first edition in 2012.

This edition is a product of a partnership between Ag Excellence Alliance, the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin Natural Resources Management Board and the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, supported with funding from the NRM levy, South Australian and Australian Governments.

Ag Excellence Alliance administration manager Mandy Pearce says the new edition contains 414 apps, of which 235 are iOS apps for iPhones and iPads and 179 are Android apps, for brands such as Samsung, HTC and Nokia. “This edition reflects just how far technology has moved in only two years,” Mrs Pearce said.

The guide identifies both paid and free apps that can help farmers in their day-today work; everything from weather or fire information to business tools, such as farm inputs and supplies.

“There’s a lot of new content online which has been identified in this second edition with 226 new apps, including 123 iOS and 103 Android.
“The original publication generated an enormous amount of interest and I have been asked to speak to groups about apps at various events across the state, and interstate, since it was released.
“With this overwhelming response, it was only logical that it needed updating to ensure the latest information was available.”

Natural Resources SA Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Farming Project Officer Mark May said his organisation was keen to be involved in the project following interest among farmers to access information via smartphone and tablet devices.

“We saw value in assisting farmers to become aware of agricultural specific apps which will help them make informed farming business decisions,” Mr May said.
“Using the apps can help farmers with their time management, record keeping and much more, leading to increase in farming profitability.
“Working with Ag Excellence has been a valuable partnership resulting in a resource that is easy to use and can be updated for the next 12 months.

Mrs Pearce said the project’s next stage is to list all the apps on the Ag Excellence website so users can filter and search the apps that may be useful without having to search through numerous apps on iTunes or Google Play. This is due for completion in January 2015.

The book is available in three formats – the full edition, iOS or Android – and can be downloaded here

Mandy Pearce (Ag Excellence) and Mark May (Natural Resources SAMDB) with the second edition of Ag Excellence Alliance’s Smartphone Apps for Smart Farmers.