For years or even decades the farm notebook has been with you everywhere you go, it’s going to be hard to say goodbye. Now’s the time to trade in your notebook for something that’s a little bit fancier, more intelligent, quicker to use, and more flexible. That something is digital farm recording software such as the Cloud Farmer app.
Compliance driven world
Your trusty notebook and farm diary aren’t going to cut it in today’s compliance driven world. If you don’t move with the times you’ll be left behind and you’ll end up spending more time doing farm admin and compliance than you spend farming. There’s lots of tech out there to help you run your farming business—accounting, payroll, weigh scales, EID readers and so on. Cloud Farmer isn’t about replacing those things, but instead we’re designed to work alongside the systems and processes you currently have in place.
Future proof your farm
You’re probably thinking why breakup with my notebook—it does the job and doesn’t cost a lot. You’re right, it does get the job done and the book itself doesn’t cost much, if anything. In the past it did a fantastic job and was fit for purpose. The requirements on you from an administration, compliance and regulatory perspective are changing rapidly and we don’t believe your notebook will serve you well in the future. Moving to a digital solution will help future proof your farm and ensure you don’t spend more time on admin than farming.
Less admin. More farming.
- The need to record what you’re doing on farm is increasing, yes, we’re talking about compliance. You therefore need a quicker and easier way to do that. An app gives you the ability to select from dropdown menus and take photos. All your info is collected on the spot and in a format that consistent and logical.
- Other parties such as your accountant, environmental consultant or farm advisor need access to your farm info. Recording digitally will ensure your info is presented in an organised manner that’s easy to access and digest.
- You’re not the only one who needs to know what’s happening on farm—there’s your staff, family, governance, accountant, and farm and environmental consultants. All these parties are interested in your farm, what the plan is and what’s happened in the past. We’ve also seen the value of a digital solution when it comes to succession planning. Being able to see what’s happened in the past and what the plan is for the future makes it easier for others to run your farm if something was to ever happen to you. The search function makes finding the relevant info fast, saving a lot of time and hassle.
- Notebooks get wet, lost or even eaten by the dog. Bits of paper always get lost, wet or muddy. If you lose or drop your phone it’s a bugger, but you haven’t lost any of your farm info. It will still be available to you because it is saved securely in the cloud. Simply login to Cloud Farmer from a computer or another phone and everything will be there (provided you sync regularly). Most farmers have a notebook plus lots of bits of paper (ASD forms and the like). Some of those bits of paper make it into the notebook and other bits just don’t. With an app you can quickly take a photo of that piece of paper and securely save it against a record.
- A digital solution can save you money and a hell of a lot of time. Our farmers enter their farm info into the app on the spot, whether it’s the yards or the back gully. They don’t come home after a long day and sit in the office updating their records. Having a standardised way of recording and having dropdown menus saves data entry time. Using an app means no more double handling, you don’t have to transfer info from your notebook to your diary. And the best bit is less nagging. Our farmers very rarely get nagged by their bookkeeper or accountant. All the information they need is right there when they need it, because all the info was entered on the spot. Less nagging equals less time and money wasted.
Breaking up is never easy and there will be a readjustment period. We’ve got systems in place to make the process of moving to a digital solution as smooth as possible.
Take things slowly
We’re farmers ourselves so we understand your concerns and the challenges you face. We designed Cloud Farmer to work in a similar way to your notebook and diary. This means you don’t have to change what you’re doing on farm but rather how you’re doing it. We’ll help you setup up the app so it works for your farm—you tell us how you like to record and we’ll adapt to suit—no additional charge, we do have our limits though! We recommend taking things slowly and focusing on recording one or two things in the app first and then you can add more and more. If you’ve got staff it’s important that you explain to them why you’ve made the move to a digital solution and lead by example.
Give us a whirl
We’re not asking you to marry us or make a lifelong commitment. Try us for free for two weeks, we’re happy to give you a live demo so you can see what you think. If things don’t work out, simply walk away. Heck we even make it easy for you to leave us if you do decide to commit. Simply give us four weeks’ notice and we’re done, no hard feelings and any data you’ve entered is yours to download before you go. If you do decide to come back, we’ll reactive your farm (for a small charge) and all your old data will still be there.
Don’t just take our word for it
We don’t think you’ll want to leave, you’ll most likely wonder what all the fuss was about, and why you didn’t make the move sooner. Don’t just take our word for it, see what other farmers have to say.