Farmers have always tended to be eager adopters of technology, whether it is direct seeding equipment, or the use of GPS.
But one of the most powerful technological tools at the disposal of the farmers today is the cellphone, said Peter Gredig with AgNition Inc. who spoke in Canora last Wednesday.
However, Gredig said most farmers do not use their cellphones to their best advantage as a farm tool.
“This is really about figuring out you’re carrying around a very powerful tool,” he said. “It’s about a mobile mindset.”
Gredig said the average 13-year-old is at home in a world where cellphones are used for varied applications, often simultaneously, and in concert with others connected through their devices. He said a teenager can take a cellphone “out of the box and within a week they can make it tap dance.”
And in the hands of a teen a cellphone is rarely a phone.
“The last thing a teenager does with a Smartphone is to use it as a phone,” said Gredig. “They max out use. They have no fear of it. They get it.”
As an example, Gredig said teens are not tied to the television set to watch their favourite show. They watch it online “waiting for the bus, or in the can.
“It’s understanding how powerful the real time aspect is.”
Farmers don’t always see such potential, he added.
The first thing a cellphone allows is a detachment from the farm office. Gredig said he used to be office bound, but added, “now I say get out of the office.”
In terms of actual cellphones, Gredig said the platform chosen is one of personal preference.
“They all do similar things,” he said, adding in terms of applications “everybody builds now for Android® and iPhones®.”
And tablets are “starting to become more like laptops,” with Android® and Apple “kings of the hill.”
While there are a varied range of farm uses for a cellphone, Gredig said the first is one of safety. If a farmer has a breakdown in the field, gets caught in machinery or similar situation, a cellphone can be a lifeline to help.
“But you have to have it on your person,” he said, adding anecdotally there is a story of a farmer with his arm caught in a piece of machinery who could see his cellphone in the cab, but could not reach it to call for help.
So Gredig said while Bluetooth ear pieces may be out of favour, he stills wears one in the field.
“For a farmer I think it’s perfect,” he said, because it gives a farmer access to their farm up to 100-feet away.
But use goes beyond safety.
As an example Gredig said “the Smartphone really is going to replace your wallet.” He said the day of swiping an item and owning it by the time you put in your cart in the store is close by.
“No more cashiers,” he said.
The system brings up concerns over security, but Gredig is not particularly worried.
“I think it’s as secure, or more securer than a debit card,” he said, adding if you lose your wallet they have your cards, but lose a cellphone “and 30-seconds later a password kicks in,” making it basically useless.
On the farm the tablet is now capable of replacing many of the monitors now used in tractors, combines, and other equipment, taking the role “of all the boxes they’ve been selling us and all that spaghetti (wiring),” said Gredig. “So it’s a good step in the right direction.”
Social media access is also a boon for farmers.
“You have access to thousands and thousands of brains,” said Gredig.
For example, it is immediate access to consumer data.
“Before you buy anything type it into YouTube for reviews,” said Gredig.
Gredig told the story of how being connected to farmers in Ontario via Twitter he learned of the arrival of army worms in area crops, was able to purchase insecticide and apply it in time to save thousands in terms of potential crop loss. He said that sort of benefit is not an everyday occurrence, but showed the power of being in touch.
“It’s collection of intelligence,” said Gredig.
The key is keeping your Twitter list relevant to the job.
“Follow the people who have the same brain space as you do,” said Gredig. “I don’t watch Twitter day-to-day, but at times it’s very useful.”
The Smartphome also has the potential to be a GPS marker.
“That’s one of the key things for farmers to know how to use it,” said Gredig.
The ability to video chat is another aspect of Smartphone technology farmers should be using, said Gredig.
“It’s the most powerful thing your phone does,” he said.
Gredig told those attending to think about an employee calling from the field after hearing a noise in there machinery. With video chat, the employee can show the farmer the equipment, and he can hear the noise too.
“He can do everything but smell it,” he said.
Or for a livestock producer “he can show the veterinarian what sort of herd health issues you have.”
The tech grows in power with voice activation, which allows hands-free input. While people are often disappointed in voice activation, Gredig said the systems need time to learn.
“It’s learning your speech patterns. As you use it, it gets better and better,” he said. “… And you’re not fondling these things (phones) anymore.”
And more ‘smart’ tech is on its way.
“The next trend I see is things that you wear,” he said.
That tech will range from the watch which tracks your daily steps and when you wake at night, to toothbrushes which track how good a job your do brushing, to a contact lens which tracks a diabetic’s blood sugars on a constant basis.
Gredig said it is becoming “an Internet of things” with all the various devices working in a network.
As an example a system which reduces the volume on the television when the cellphone rings because it recognizes you need quiet to talk on the phone, or the cellphone which sends a message to your thermostat when you are five miles from home to raise the temperature.
The challenge for the farmer is “to start thinking how we will use these things,” said Gredig.
Gredig said while there are now thousands of ‘apps’ being created, with some 48,000 downloaded every minute, or every day, few are specific to agriculture, so farmers need to adapt them to their own purposes.
There are thousands of business apps, from time sheets, to expense trackers to mobile banking, which he said are adaptable to farmer needs.
And the data input through such apps can simply be uploaded to a cloud for storage.
“It’s all about the clouds now. Don’t fear the clouds,” said Gredig.
