Farming has changed since the days of the three-field system and the horse-drawn plough. Modern farmers have to be tech-savvy.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Thirty-five local farmers attended a workshop by two Sydney-based tech firms at the Quality Hotel Powerhouse Armidale on Friday afternoon.
Ed Wilson, from Figured, and Will Bruce, from AgriWebb, are both fifth-generation farmers, Mr Wilson in New Zealand, and Mr Bruce in England.
READ ALSO:
Figured provides budgeting, forecasting, and reporting functionality for a farming business through Xero accounting software.
"We give a farm the ability to see its finances in real time, and where it's going," Mr Wilson said.
"This helps farmers make decisions, knowing their financial outcomes. We also connect them to advisers around common-seeded, real-time data to make big decisions and work together."
Many farmers are struggling with drought; the Figured tool can help them decide whether to offload stock, knowing how much it will cost to carry them, or to hold them through tough times.
The tool costs $50 a month, or $40 through an adviser. Farmers can add unlimited users to their account, so their banker, agronomist, or bookkeeper can advise them.
Customers, Mr Wilson said, find conversations with their banks are more positive; the bank can see everything, and flag issues. Farmers also get better advice, because they get real-time information and make better long-term decisions.
A couple of New Zealand farmers and accountants founded the business; they saw what Xero was doing, and spotted an opportunity for farmers. Five years later, they have 60 staff in four countries.
"Farming is in a state of flux," Mr Wilson said. "We have one of the biggest intergenerational transfers of assets. The next generation expect a lot more from their technology, but also their partners in the business - the accountant and their bank. We're positioning ourselves to be the tool to give them what they want to support decision-making in the future. The incoming generation focus on the financials; they're there to make a dollar."
Will Bruce's Agriwebb lets livestock farmers across the country keep good quality records online and offline, in the paddock and homestead, around how they're looking after their livestock.
"It's a very valuable tool to have, both for good and bad," Mr Bruce said. "When times are tough," Mr Bruce said, "it's a very useful tool to know whether you should be adding further animals to your property, if you've got enough rain and vegetation, but also when to pull the ripcord and not put further dollars into feed."
Three co-designers developed the system in a Melbourne garage four years ago; they now look after nearly 15 per cent of livestock in Australia, Mr Bruce said. More than 3000 farmers use the technology to monitor 7.2 million animals on more than 10 milloin hectares. Within a 300km radius of Armidale, 274 farmers use the system to monitor 682,000 animals on 1.1 million hectares. The tool starts at $45 a month.
The designers wanted to replace paper notebooks (all too easily tossed into the washing machine) with a system for phones and tablets.
Farmers find that they have more time, Mr Bruce said. Instead of having to grapple with Excel spreadsheets at the end of the day, they now spend an average of five minutes a day, while treating, feeding, or weighing in the field. This gives them more time to spend with their family, look after their animals better, and enjoy not looking at computers.
Andrew Carruthers, founder and managing director of Armidale-based AD Commodities, has been an AgriWebb customer since the beginning. He farms at Wollomombi and Dumaresq, and ships to Papua New Guinea and Japan.
"AgriWebb has been the most client-friendly performance software for agricultural use that I've come across," he said. "We trialled a lot, and we settled on these guys, because their after-sale support is second to none; the ease of using the product is first-rate; and the accuracy and data we get out of it is invaluable."
Mr Carruthers has been a point of reference; his feedback and suggestions have helped develop the product.
"He's been crucial in our development," Mr Bruce said. "We're spending as much time with farmers like Andrew as possible all over Australia to gain his insights."