Cloud Farmer An Integral Part Of Kereru Farm

The Right Solution

Simon was over notebooks on farm and the dog eating the shepherd’s notebook (true story) was the last straw. “We made the move to Cloud Farmer a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back” says Simon. When looking at alternative options for the notebook Simon and Trudy considered FarmIQ, but decided it was too focused on analysis and they already had FARMAX for that, “we wanted something simple that would allow us to record all of our day-to-day info. Cloud Farmer does everything we need and doesn’t cost a fortune”.

Time Saver

Simon and Trudy have found Cloud Farmer to be a real time saver especially when it comes to planning and being prepared for an audit. The planner in Cloud Farmer has been invaluable on Kereru Farm, Simon says, “most Sundays I have the whole week planned out in Cloud Farmer, at our Monday morning meeting we quickly run through what’s on for the week.” The whole team can see the plan for the week no matter where they are and means everyone is on the same page.

Come audit time Simon isn’t having spend time getting all of his records in order. It’s all in Cloud Farmer because they’ve been recording as they go. “The biggest thing Cloud Farmer is really good for is Farm Assurance. I just open the computer and it’s all there, real information! Not information I had to scramble around to find the morning of the audit.” says Simon.

Accountability

Simon and the team are diligent at filling out the diary, “we keep a really good diary in Cloud Farmer, for me that’s really important. The staff keep good notes in the diary that we can all look back on. They can also see what I’ve done, which makes them more involved and allows them think one step ahead and a level above.”

Flexibility is key

Cloud Farmer provides a simple solution

AN APP THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Every farm is unique and each farmer knows the best way to run their property. Finding a technology solution that works with your farm and integrates seamlessly isn’t always easy. Helen Linssen and Jeff Martin of Te Karoa Farms have found the perfect solution to their farm recording headaches. The Cloud Farmer app provides Helen and Jeff with one place to record, store and share all of their farm records. They’re able to record anything and everything instantly on their phone on farm. “Cloud Farmer is a great solution for us, we haven’t had to change the way we run our farm. We were able to customise Cloud Farmer to suit how we operate.” says Jeff.

ONE PLACE

Before Cloud Farmer all records on Te Karoa Farms were kept manually. Because the farm is made up of three properties, animal health records would end up in three different places. “Having one place for all of our record keeping has saved us so much time. We know exactly where to look for any records” says Helen. Weekly planning, stock records, vehicle servicing and more recently environmental recording is all entered in Cloud Farmer. “Using technology has made a huge difference, we can now enter and view information on the spot.” says Helen.

FLEXIBILITY

On Te Karoa Farms environmental recording isn’t an extra task, but rather an integral part of running a successful farm. Being able to use Cloud Farmer for their environmental recording has made this process even more seamless. “Cloud Farmer have been proactive and have suggested other ways that we can use the app to record anything from riparian fencing to pest control.” says Jeff.
A key point of difference is the ability to easily customise the app at no extra cost. “Finding a piece of technology that is flexible and simple to use is almost unheard of. But Cloud Farmer is both of those things.” says Jeff.

Cloud Farmer Saves Time In The Office On Chipinga.

Get you evenings back

Caroline Smith runs her family’s beef and deer farm near Te Pohue in Hawke’s Bay. Before making the switch to Cloud Farmer several years ago Caroline had at least five different notebooks for recording stock movements, treatments, spraying and one for the dogs, cats and horses.

Now all she has is her smart phone, which is always with her. After a long day Caroline would get home and have to write up what she’d done, “I’d get distracted at night with the kids and think I’ll write that up in a minute. Two days later I’d come back to it and think shit what did I do”.

With Cloud Farmer Caroline is able to enter info on the spot, “once I’ve weighed and drenched the animals I’ll make an entry straight into Cloud Farmer before packing up out of the yards. Once I’ve finished for the day, I really have finished for the day.” says Caroline.

Stress free compliance

Spending an extra couple minutes every time Caroline does something on farm really pays off at audit time with no more stress the night before. “MPI were most impressed when they came to do an audit. I was able to quickly show them records for chemical inventory, my stock treatments, the diary/notices—they were amazed and just ticked everything off!” says Caroline.

Embrace technology

Caroline was quick to adopt Cloud Farmer after a neighbour mentioned it to her. It was a no brainer and complemented what she was already doing on farm, “we use a bit of technology, I use a drone a lot and have sensors on all of the water tanks and we use the Cash Manager app.” Caroline likes apps because they make her life easier—she looked at other farming software but it had too much analysis and IQ for what she needed. “Cloud Farmer doesn’t tell you how to farm, we tell it what to do” says Caroline. Cloud Farmer has streamlined the recording of day-to-day farm info on Chipinga, her advice to other farmers is, “you should have done it ages ago. Take up the free trial and see for yourself how good it is”.