Farm Management Apps & Software: A Complete Guide

In modern agriculture, technology plays a critical role. If you aren't taking advantage of what the latest software has to offer, your business may not reach its full potential.

 

With everything that goes into running a farm, it's important to automate systems and processes  where you can. That's the role of farm management apps.

 

These tools can provide a boost to your business in areas like health and safety, financial analysis, crop management and so much more. In our complete guide, we'll look at how these tools are used and how you can find the best piece of software for your business.

What is a farm management app?

A farm management app is a blanket term for a number of specific softwares farmers and growers can use to assist in the operations of their farms. They can be used for a wide array of purposes depending on the particular piece of software.

 

They typically function on mobile devices and desktops. This enables them to be used both in the field as well as in the office for maximum effectiveness.

 

Considering everything that goes into running a farm, it's no surprise that farm management software comes in many different forms. Depending on the purpose of your farm, you will require a different kind of app.

 

They typically fall into one of several categories. Apps may cross over into multiple different categories, but they generally have a single focus area.

• Health and safety: Apps such as Onside primarily focus on providing farmers with tools to enhance health and safety precautions on their farms. This enables farms to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and maintain the well-being of staff and visitors.

• Finance and data analysis: Agribusinesses can be extremely complicated, both in terms of finances and production data. Some farm management apps specialise in producing custom reports and automated data analysis to help businesses.

• Crop management: Growers can use farm management apps that specifically focus on crop production. These apps have specific features that relate specifically to this area, such as chemical use and wastage logging.

• Livestock management: For livestock farmers, farm management apps can offer specialised functions, too. Apps targeted at livestock farmers offer tools to assist with grazing, mob management and more.

What do farm management apps do?

Farm management is a broad, complex process. As such, farm management apps can serve many different roles.

 

Read on for a comprehensive rundown of some of the key functions served by different pieces of farm management software. 

Health and safety

Injuries (and even fatalities) are a constant risk on farms across Australia and New Zealand. Due to this fact, and the regulatory requirements that go with running an agribusiness, many farm management apps include extensive health and safety features.

 

Some health and safety tools available in farm management apps are:

• Digitally check-in: From check-in questions to real-time health and safety updates, farm management apps are the ideal way to keep your team and visitors updated on critical property information.

• Emergency features: Some of the most critical information you can share with employees and visitors is emergency information. With this tool, workers and visitors can locate medical kits on the digital map. Contact details for first responders can also be stored and found in the app.

• Risk mapping: Digital mapping is an ideal way to practically alert workers and visitors to potential health and safety concerns on your property. With this function, you can map risks and use templates to provide specific information to workers and visitors.

• Incident reporting: Incident reporting is important for compliance and learning from oversights. Farm management apps can enable incidents to be logged by any user at any time. This simplifies the process. Some farm management apps also offer corrective actions to be created based on incidents.

• Lone worker safety: Farm management apps promote lone worker safety with digital check-in so you can track when lone workers don’t leave your property when expected. Check-in questions also ensure that they understand safety information from the moment they enter your property.

Farm mapping

Many farm management apps offer the ability to create digital maps. These maps can then be accessed and updated in real-time by users.

Using a digital farm map provides a range of benefits for farmers and growers.

• Information: Farm mapping is an excellent way to provide information to workers and visitors on your farms. Digital maps can include information such as the best routes around the property, and points of interest like the site office and crop fields.

• Risk management: Some of the most important information you can provide to workers and visitors is farm hazards. With farm management apps, you can mark GPS locations of hazards and provide further information about them. You can also use the map to identify assembly points and first aid resources.

• Geofencing: On large farms, it can be very difficult to track who is on your property. Geofencing functions make this easy, with instant alerts when people arrive or leave your farm. 

• Accessibility: Having farm maps available to your team on mobile devices makes them especially useful, as they can be referred to throughout the day by workers in the field. This is a clear step up over printing maps in a head office.

Reporting

Using farm management software, businesses can create reports across various facets of their business.

 

Housing reports in a single app offer many advantages to agribusinesses. For example, it's easy to access and distribute historical reports whenever necessary.

 

Reporting functions available in farm management apps include:

• Compliance: Complying with regulatory frameworks in Australia and New Zealand frequently require the creation of reports on topics like risk management and biosecurity. Farm management apps can make it easy to generate and fill in these reports in an easy-to-use app.

• Certifications: Agricultural certification programs require significant amounts of information to be captured. Farm management software can automate much of this process, while also enabling you to download audit reports.

• Data and finance reports: Another style of report offered by certain farm management tools is data and finance reports. With the right tool, you can access complex, insightful reports at the click of a button.

Contractor management

Contractors are a huge part of agribusiness in Australia. However, contractor management can come with its fair share of headaches.

 

That's why many farm management apps include contractor management features to help simplify this process.

• Qualifications: Contractor management functionality makes it easy to know whether contractors are qualified to work on your farm. They can enable you to send and receive all the key documents you require to have contractors working on your property. It also includes automated reminders to update documents when necessary.

• Inductions: Information-sharing functions of farm management software are crucial for inducting contractors. They can swiftly be informed of risks and rules with check-in questions. These tools can also create digital records confirming that induction has occurred.

• Check-in: Check-in functions enable you to know when contractors have arrived, what their role on your farm is, and if they do not check out when expected.

Manage production workflows

No two farms are the same, but the need to manage the complexities of production is universal. That's why farm management software helps with tools to deal with production workflow.

• Task management: If your whole team uses the same app, it's very simple to assign tasks to particular staff members. When paired with a farm mapping function, you can pinpoint the location of tasks to make things even easier.

• Quality control: With task management features, you can assign recurring responsibilities such as inspecting crop health. Farm management apps can log information, making it easy to identify issues on your farm as they arise.

• Scenario planning: With advanced analytics, agriculture managers can run scenarios and create forecasts. This helps users understand the levels of production they are on track for, and make workflow changes as necessary.

Biosecurity

Biosecurity is an essential consideration for all agribusinesses. Many farm management apps include the necessary tools to ensure biosecurity on your property.

 

Farm management apps in this area offer a range of functions to allow farms to manage their biosecurity.

• Check-in questions: Check-in questions can be used to inform workers and visitors of biosecurity obligations before they enter your farm. They can remind entrants to perform certain tasks that are essential for maintaining biosecurity, such as washing their shoes or leaving their vehicle in a certain area.

• Compliance: Complying with biosecurity regulations is essential for any farm. Farm management apps can ensure staff and visitors are informed of their obligations, keep detailed records of visitors, and share farm data with relevant regulatory bodies.

• Record: Certain farm management tools enable you to access check-in reports anytime, anywhere. You can review visitors' responses and instantly find their contact details to swiftly respond to concerns.

Crop management

Crop-focused farm management software offers tools to help growers manage the various challenges of growing crops.

 

While crop management software can offer many different functions to growers, a few common features include:

• Wastage logging: When your whole team is using crop-focused farm management software, you can log scraps with ease. You can also distinguish various causes of waste, like poor quality or overproduction.

• Manage production recipes: Using crop management tools, you can create and store the perfect recipes for your produce. From growth time to chemical treatments, growers can leave guesswork behind and repeat successful methods.

• Plan treatments: Another useful tool of crop management tools is the capacity to manage treatments. From pesticides to fertilisers, these tools allow growers to plan treatments and record information like dosages.

Livestock management

Just as growers can make use of crop-focussed apps, livestock farmers also have specialised apps designed for their needs.

 

Common livestock-related features of farm management apps include:

• Grazing management: Grazing is a critical part of livestock farming. Some farm management apps focus almost exclusively on grazing, offering solutions like forecasting and simulating various grazing conditions, feed budgeting and visual graze plans.

• Animal activity and insights: Some farm management tools can house a huge amount of information about your animals, including complete records and high-quality insights like sire genetics.

• Feed and water management: Feed and water are essential for successful livestock management. Certain farm management apps allow you to track your feed inventory in-depth. Farmers and growers can also analyse rainfall data and track water tank levels. 

Data and financial analytics

At the end of the day, farms are businesses. This means there are plenty of numbers to crunch.

 

Farmers and growers can use the assistance offered by farm management software to help out. These tools can help in the following ways:

• Production costs: Understanding your production costs is essential for running a profitable farm. With the right farm management software, you can deeply analyse your production costs, from individual bushels to entire crops.

• Forecasting: With the ability to analyse your finances and other data about your business, farmers and growers can build in-depth forecasts. This helps business owners to understand future harvests and the overall performance of their farms.

• Accounting and payroll: Business owners have plenty of options for accounting and payroll software. Many finance-focused farm management apps integrate these tools for a simpler solution.

Inventory management

Effective inventory management is crucial for smooth farm operations. It ensures the efficient use of resources and thus minimal costs.

 

Here are just a few of the inventory management features that the best farm management apps can offer:

• Tracking stock levels: Farm management apps with inventory functionality typically offer real-time updates of stock levels. You can find out if you are running low on fertilisers, pesticides or anything else your farm relies on.

• Re-ordering: In some instances, inventory management functionality enables farmers and growers to automatically reorder products when they are running low. This can be a highly convenient way to save time and ensure you never run out of the things that keep your business running.

• Sales: With a comprehensive inventory management solution, managing sales becomes far simpler for farms. You can access an accurate, real-time picture of your inventory and know exactly what you have in stock. Some tools even help with shipping and logistics processes.

What to look for in farm management apps

When looking for the right farm management app for your business, here are a few key perks to look out for:

• Mobile functionality: For the most part, farming isn't done behind a desk. For a farm management app to be truly integrated into your everyday workflows, it's important that it can be used in the field on a mobile device.

• Ease of use: Farm management apps can have many technical elements. However, it's important that your employees and contractors can quickly learn how to use an app and integrate it into their tasks. This comes down to an intuitive design, based on real needs of the agriculture sector.

• Low connectivity mode: When working on regional properties, an Internet connection is never guaranteed. A good farm management app must have the ability to function with low connectivity or be able to function offline. This feature can prevent massive headaches for your business.

• Integrations: Look for farm management apps that integrate with other software relating to areas like environmental data or sales. This connectivity will go even further to make your life as a business owner easier, as data is easily shared from one app to the other.

Top farm management apps

Fortunately, agribusiness owners have plenty of options when it comes to choosing a farm management app. Here are a few of the most popular options available for farmers and growers in Australia and New Zealand.

Onside

Onside specialises in the health and safety side of agriculture management. Agribusiness owners have many legal obligations to maintain health and safety on their property.

 

It is also an essential component of compliance schemes in Australia and New Zealand.

 

Here are just a few features Onside offers to assist farmers and growers:

• Digital health and safety information: When your team uses the Onside app, everyone has access to crucial safety information in the palm of their hand. With its check-in questions feature, visitors and workers acknowledge risks and rules as they check in. Any updates to site safety can be easily communicated.

• Farm mapping: Farm mapping is another critical piece of Onside's health and safety features. It's an excellent way to track risks on your farm and provide real-time updates where necessary. You can even use risk templates to rapidly respond to new situations.

• Easy incident reporting: Manual incident reporting can be time-consuming. Your staff may be so resistant to it that incidents may go unreported. Using Onside, anyone on your property can report incidents, generate corrective actions and include images to create a full understanding of what occurred. With more accurate, comprehensive reports and corrective actions, you can create a stronger health and safety culture on your farm.

• Emergency plan: When your whole team is using the Onside app, everyone can access your emergency plan. This feature includes key information such as the location of items like medical kits, and details for emergency contacts.

Onside goes well beyond health and safety, offering a wide array of other features. This includes biosecurity tools, contractor and visitor management and data collection for audits and compliance.

 

Book an Onside demo today and find out how farm management software can benefit your agribusiness.

MaiaGrazing

Sometimes the best tool for your farm is a highly specific piece of software. MaiaGrazing is a leading grazing management app with plenty of features to help livestock farmers in this all-important task.

 

MaiaGrazing includes the following features:

• Planning: MaiaGrazing enables users to generate different grazing scenarios depending on rainfall variations and stocking decisions. Users can then create in-depth forecasts and create an action plan based on their findings.

• Mapping: MaiaGrazing offers a unique farm mapping feature that allows you to create a visual graze plan. With this plan, you can easily plan mob movements to perfectly fulfil your plan.

• Reporting and dashboards: Grazing requires year-on-year learning. That's why MaiaGrazing users can access reports and dashboards covering paddock yield, graze history, rainfall analytics and more.

Agriware 365

Agriware 365 is a Microsoft-based farm management solution with a focus on crops and plant production. It's a comprehensive app with functionality that covers many of the key areas for plant growth.

 

Agriware 365's features include:

• Financial management: Agriware 365 offers extensive financial software. It enables businesses to manage cash flow, provide value data for stock, and evaluate running production batches for real-time updates.

• Operations: The software also assists with production workflows. With mobile functionality, scrap can easily be logged by anyone to reduce waste and avoid overproduction. It also helps with inspections, plant recipes, seedling counting and more.

• Inventory management: Agriware 365 helps users step into the digital age with advanced inventory management functionality. Growers can see real-time inventory updates, project future stock levels and trace the full history of plants. It's an important tool for production and sales alike.

Agworld

Agworld is a farm management app that targets not just growers, but close associates as well. It can be used by contractors as well as service providers like agronomists.

 

It is primarily a data management platform that shares information among all these key stakeholders. Key information about your business is stored in the cloud. You can set up accounts for your team members so they only have access to the information they need.

 

Data can also be shared with contractors to swiftly get them up to speed. It also has financial data capabilities, helping agricultural retailers and agronomists improve the profitability of their businesses.

Traction

Traction takes an "accounting-first approach" to farm management. If you want to streamline your farm's approach to finances, it's an ideal tool.

 

Traction offers the following features:

• Production cost and profitability: With extensive record-keeping for the costs that go into your agribusiness, you can easily calculate the profitability of small or large units of production on your whole farm.

• Inventory management: Like many apps, Traction allows business owners to analyse their inventory anytime, anywhere. Its unique approach to inventory management also gives you extensive financial data about your stock at your fingertips.

• Financial Reporting: Traction also offers extensive reporting features. Farmers and growers can access financial report templates like cash income statements and balance sheets. You can also get into the weeds of specific areas of your farm like equipment costs and make the best financial decisions for you.

 

Book an Onside demo and discover the many ways it can elevate your farming operations.