We'd love a little help. Do you have a smartphone?

RobFM

Member
Morning all. For those that I've not spoken to, I am CEO cofounder at www.fieldmargin.com.

Our new phone app is ready for some proper field testing.

Keeping and sharing geolocated notes across your farm. Improving communication, reducing paperwork and duplications. It keeps a copy of a useful map on your phone and works even when you're not in signal range. Any notes made on your farm will appear on the rest of your team's phones.

We've been working hard and we have a lot more ideas to come but the version we are happy for people to have a play with is now ready. What we need is to make sure we're on the right track and get some suggestions of what we need to do to it to make it better.

If you're interested, and I would be very grateful, please fill in this quick survey here https://fieldmargin.typeform.com/to/Z73CF2

Thanks all!

thumb_IMG_5549_1024.jpgthumb_IMG_5546_1024.jpgthumb_IMG_5551_1024.jpg
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
Does this mean i have to get into 21 century and buy a smart phone?
Like the app idea,,
So suggestions for sub £100 phone, not tooo big, with massousive batt power
to run it on please.

take a pic of each machine, with space for records of servicing.

indivdual fields with update of acres, stock nos in field , fert timing/amount.
And when you get to field , be able to open up a poor mans tramliner/ tracking device
 
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RobFM

Member
Hi @joe soapy nice ideas. We're trying to get in front of the Rural Payments people - they have all of the field boundaries in the UK making the acreage stuff super easy (save you drawing your fields or walking round them all). Machinery stuff has been said before - definitely something we'll look into.

How would you use a tracking system - what would you like it to do?

RE: cheap phone, I would look at a samsung, sony or LG running a recent version of Android. Avoid the temptation to buy Windows or Blackberries as they both seem to be dying a death (which is why they are giving them away!)... Maybe a 2nd hand iPhone too although they're not famed for their battery life!
 

joe soapy

Member
Location
devon
Hi @joe soapy nice ideas. We're trying to get in front of the Rural Payments people - they have all of the field boundaries in the UK making the acreage stuff super easy (save you drawing your fields or walking round them all). Machinery stuff has been said before - definitely something we'll look into.

How would you use a tracking system - what would you like it to do?

RE: cheap phone, I would look at a samsung, sony or LG running a recent version of Android. Avoid the temptation to buy Windows or Blackberries as they both seem to be dying a death (which is why they are giving them away!)... Maybe a 2nd hand iPhone too although they're not famed for their battery life!

continous tracking, lots of uses, some of us less than precision farmers could use it instead of trams,
especially in the more difficult moorland fields, and, how often have you lost something and think "where have i been". or say follow me to someone and they lose sight of you.. Prove to wife you really did go to dealer to fetch spares:(:(

Share updated cattle numbers in fields,, can be embarrassing when cattle break out and somebody asks how many should be in there
 

RobFM

Member
continous tracking, lots of uses, some of us less than precision farmers could use it instead of trams,
especially in the more difficult moorland fields, and, how often have you lost something and think "where have i been". or say follow me to someone and they lose sight of you.. Prove to wife you really did go to dealer to fetch spares:(:(

Share updated cattle numbers in fields,, can be embarrassing when cattle break out and somebody asks how many should be in there

All going in a list - great stuff!
 

Osca

Member
Location
Tayside
How many points can it handle, and how accurately? And do you then just download it to a computer? If your phone battery dies n the middle,have you lost the lot? And - what will it cost / what sort of back up will there be when it is available for real? Probably daft questions but would love to use something like this to pin down the positions of my newly planted orchard trees - sounds daft I know but I am always forgetting what is what and scrabbling about drawing little plans...
 

Filthyfarmer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Hertfordshire
Does this mean i have to get into 21 century and buy a smart phone?
Like the app idea,,
So suggestions for sub £100 phone, not tooo big, with massousive batt power to run it on please.

Also one with a decent airial, or get more masts up......
I can see Canary Wharf in London 25 miles away from the farm, but might as well be on another planet as far as signal goes!
 

RobFM

Member
How many points can it handle, and how accurately? And do you then just download it to a computer? If your phone battery dies n the middle,have you lost the lot? And - what will it cost / what sort of back up will there be when it is available for real? Probably daft questions but would love to use something like this to pin down the positions of my newly planted orchard trees - sounds daft I know but I am always forgetting what is what and scrabbling about drawing little plans...

There are no daft questions! A really interesting use case for us.

Hi @Osca there shouldn't really be a limit on the number of points (we *may* find that there is a limit but that's why we're testing). Accuracy on phone GPS depends on model and how well you can see the sky but you can adjust the exact point as you are making it if you can see GPS-lock is out.

We will in time bring out a browser view you can see on any computer (with an internet connection) until then they'll all be there on your teams phones and backed up to our servers.
If your phone runs out of battery then there will be no losses of data; if it completely dies (stops working forever) then anything made offline that day may be lost.

We are trying exactly to replace paper notes and paper plans. Keeping everything safe and helping you make decisions on the go. Regarding cost, we aren't final on that yet, trying make sure we make something that people need first. I expect we will always have a free level for adhoc users but we will probably look at a monthly charge (perhaps based on area) without any long term tie-in or upfront fees. We have a lot of more features in mind and we expect that the time saving, accuracy and increased productivity will dwarf any future fees.
 

Chapelton

Member
Location
Castle Douglas
Hi @joe soapy nice ideas. We're trying to get in front of the Rural Payments people - they have all of the field boundaries in the UK making the acreage stuff super easy (save you drawing your fields or walking round them all). Machinery stuff has been said before - definitely something we'll look into.

How would you use a tracking system - what would you like it to do?

RE: cheap phone, I would look at a samsung, sony or LG running a recent version of Android. Avoid the temptation to buy Windows or Blackberries as they both seem to be dying a death (which is why they are giving them away!)... Maybe a 2nd hand iPhone too although they're not famed for their battery life!

Farmers can get hold of the shape files for their ground fairly easily by emailing the department so you just need a way of uploading them. Do you have a web portal for the app?
 

RobFM

Member
Farmers can get hold of the shape files for their ground fairly easily by emailing the department so you just need a way of uploading them. Do you have a web portal for the app?

Hey @Chapelton we've been discussing just that sort of thing (for yield and spray maps too - and anything else geo-based) the ideal though (and route one) is for us to get the whole lot to help sign up and make the first experience simple and exciting.
 

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quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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