Crops of high-tech farmers sow results with apps

WESTFORD, Vermont (AP) ― A new cyber tool that helps map crops and monitor irrigation systems came to life after a University of Vermont researcher realized farmers just weren’t very good at keeping records.

“They would guess a lot,” said Heather Darby, an agronomist from the University of Vermont Extension. “Or they’d write it down on little scrap pieces of paper or cigarette packs, like anything they had laying around they’d write it on, and then they’d show up for class, and we’d try to decipher all these little notes.”

Noticing that farmers had grown accustomed to carrying cellphones, whether in the field, on tractors or in the barn, she developed the goCrop Web and mobile app. The project was awarded about $400,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture this spring to expand the app for use around the Northeast and California, where soil conditions are different, and add functions for mapping, grazing and pest management.

Across the country, farmers are relying on new cyber tools to manage manure and fertilizer applications, monitor irrigation systems, coordinate harvests and check the weather and real-time agricultural markets.

“The tech-savvy farmer is able to speed up the decision-making cycle and do his or her job much more effectively,” Ben Potter, technology editor for Farm Journal, wrote in an email.

In Giltner, Nebraska, Zach Hunnicutt carries his iPad and smartphone wherever he goes on his farm, and he uses a combination of apps. He said he used his iPad to monitor humidity levels during a soybean harvest Thursday at the 2,500-acre farm.

The tools digitize information that used to be kept in notebooks and stores it in the cloud, where it can be shared with fellow farmers and can’t blow out of a pickup or tractor and get lost.

The FieldView app interfaces with their tractor and planter at planting time and creates maps to reference what hybrids they’ve planted where. SoilWeb tells him what soil type he’s standing on and what’s near him so he doesn’t have to look at maps or read through the legend. The farm can also control their irrigation pivots from a smartphone.

From a practical standpoint, Hunnicutt said, the app helps farmers check irrigation systems without burning fuel and tells them when something shuts down. It also lets farmers know that crops are getting water when they need it, he said.