It’s official: There is now an app for everything. That’s what you may think when you discover FarmLogs, a new app specifically targeted to farmers. This unconventional creation was founded by high-school friends Jesse Vollmar and Brad Koch.
Why does farming need an app? Modern farming requires a significant amount of data that can be easily accessible. FarmLogs helps keep this information organized. It allows farmers to simplify many aspects of their work, including seasonal budgeting, scheduling and monitoring of different fields and the constant observance of market commodity prices. This app can even remind farmers when their tractors need to be serviced.
Additionally, FarmLogs allows for easy access to national data sets. Farmers can check the National Weather Service to keep track of rainfall or the National Agricultural Statistics Survey to monitor satellite imagery of crop history. FarmLogs is especially helpful for organic farmers, as they must keep precise records of farming practices to receive and maintain their certification.
Although agriculture accounts for 36 percent of the world’s jobs, very little technology exists to make farming easier. This noticeable deficiency is partially due to the goals of the tech world: Many technology companies overlook the farming industry completely or don’t have the agricultural know-how to implement a truly helpful program. FarmLogs stands out because it mixes these two words: The app combines Vollmar’s knowledge of agriculture with his knowledge of technology. To Vollmar, agriculture is a science, and it can be optimized using data.
He designed the program to be user-friendly so farmers don’t have to spend precious time learning how to use specialized programs. Vollmar also believes that farming technology will strengthen the ties between older and younger generations of farmers. This may convince more young people to carry on the farming tradition.
Vollmar is part of his own farming tradition: His family has been farming for five generations, and his mother is currently running their organic family farm in Michigan. Vollmar, staying actively involved in the family business, has been developing farm-related technology for his mother for years. Although he has other useful inventions, including the grain elevator database he developed in college, Vollmar’s most influential creation seems to be FarmLogs.
Since its founding two years ago, the app has received four million dollars in investor financing. It is used by five percent of farmers in the US and has extended to farmers in 130 other countries. Much of this growth can be attributed to Vollmar’s involvement with Y Combinator, a startup funding program that provides seed money and connections in return for equity in the startup.
FarmLogs is currently looking to collect data on farm equipment. Vollmar wants to attach a dongle to tractors so farmers can record field-specific information such as the amount of fertilizer used in a certain area or the number of seeds planted in a row of crops. When combined with the other data sets, this information may help farmers tend their crops more efficiently. Vollmar hopes to have this program in beta testing by the summer.
FarmLogs is an online-based app and is available for both Android and iPhone platforms.
