Thanks to the invention of Smart Phones, farmers are conducting business where the real action is happening – in the field!
Today’s cell phones double as a farmer’s personal secretary, weather center and crop manager. You may already be aware of the convenience of receiving email and accessing the internet through your phone, but with the development of Smart Phone applications, the sky is the limit for what you can achieve from your tractor seat!
We’ve heard a lot about some resourceful Smart Phone applications that we wanted to share with you. Take a look at what we found and let us know if you use any of these applications or if you have discovered other useful “apps.”
Foursquare
Your first impression of this application might be that it’s just a game for teenage kids to tout their whereabouts and how many times they’ve been to the movie theater or Starbucks. However, it’s actually a pretty useful tool for tracking your team’s whereabouts. This application allows you to “check in” at destinations using GPS on your phone. You can link your address book, Twitter and Facebook accounts with the program to connect with others. If you don’t have internet on your phone, you can receive text alerts with location updates. This application can really come in handy when you’re moving from field to field. You can update your status on Foursquare to let everyone know where you are.
DuPont TankMix Application
With this application you can calculate the amount of a product you need to apply to a specific field area or to a specific tank size, and the amount of water to mix it with to achieve the appropriate volume to volume ratio. The TankMix application provides numerous options for Units of Measure and allows you to enter information in fractions or decimal points.
SoilWeb
Using GPS on your phone in combination with USDA-NRCS soil survey data, this application retrieves graphical summaries of soil types associated with your current location. An interactive map allows you to pan and zoom, in order to help you navigate your location using highways and streets.
The Weather Channel App
The Weather Channel application allows you to check current weather conditions and receive hourly, 36-hour and 10-day forecasts. You can monitor radar and satellite maps using Google Images, which allows for faster panning and zooming. You can also look up long range weather forecasts and weather history with the application’s Almanac.
Agriculture Price Alert
This application helps you monitor agriculture futures prices. You can set price alerts and the application notifies you when prices reach the line you have set. No need to call home for a report on futures!
iSpeak Spanish
Translating from English to Spanish is made easy with this application. You simply enter the text you want translated, press the translate button and the “speak it” button to hear what you’ve translated.
the new bean head is nice.