Disclaimer: I founded Farmbrite
There are a wide variety of different online and desktop systems these days on the market for farmers. In our experience the right software really depends on the type of operation you are running, how much automation you may or may not have in place, you’re level of experience with farm planning, management, or record keeping software and what’s important to your business.
Most farm management software should include these key features:
- Record keeping & traceability features
- Crop planning and field mapping capabilities
- Farm schedule and task management
- Historic harvest/yield reporting and trends
- Track field activity
- Weather predicting
- Accessible online
Some farm management systems focus on niche needs and others have solutions that are designed for a specific scale of operations. For example, features like automated tracking and reporting integrated into IOT devices or tractors. Other systems offer a broader set of features that can help with your whole agriculture business. For example, farm accounting capabilities, livestock tracking & genealogy, grazing management, tractor and equipment record keeping, CSA management, etc.
At the end of the day I would recommend taking a few different software solutions for a test drive. Look for an online solution that offers you a free no hassle trial, so you can really try it out. See what makes the most sense for your operation and is easy to get started with and use.
A good farm management system should help your business be more efficient, productive and inevitably profitable and it should be able to provide you insight into what is working and not working for you.
Beyond the key features of any system, I’d also keep in mind:
- Is the system safe, secure and built to protect your data
- Is it easy to use? You don’t want to waste a bunch of time fighting with the software.
- A good solution that can help you doesn’t need to cost as much as a new tractor
- What are the goals of the company who developed the software? Are they heavily focussed on profits for their investors or are they customer feedback driven and focussed on helping their customers (farmers) be more successful?
Here are a few systems that I’d recommend you take a look at:
- AgSquared
- FarmLogs
- Granular
- Agrivi
I also hope that you will consider Farmbrite: www.farmbrite.com
We’ve designed it to be different from other farm management systems out there as it provides a holistic set of solutions to help you:
- Plan, track and report on your crop production
- Manage farm scheduling, activities and tasks
- Manage all your livestock needs (record keeping, expenses & production reporting, grazing management, genealogy, breeding, etc)
- Flexible and customizable to meet the needs or all kinds of operations and producers
- Schedule F compatible farm accounting features including profit and loss reporting
- Keep detailed records for all your equipment and customers
Our goal is to help get farmers better organized, keep better records, manage their resources, track production and identify trends to gain valuable insights and increase efficiency and profits.