New tool to help farmers make compliance easy
A step-by-step guide helping farmers through the process of creating a Freshwater Farm Plan (FWFP) has been launched by FarmIQ.
The new app, called Grow, is primarily a mobile app with additional web functionality.
It is centred around helping users see their whole operation clearly and manage it confidently.
Grow brings all aspects of farm and land businesses into one place: mapping; health and safety management; staff management; planning tools like a diary, calendar and lists; land event tracking; and animal recording.
Grow will be available to download from next week during the National Fieldays, where Grow is a Fieldays Innovation Awards participant in the Innovation Hub.
The core Grow app is completely free, but users can pay to unlock throttled features or purchase additional add-ons to get extra features as they need.
FarmIQ Systems CEO, Gavin McEwen, says Grow is the painless and easy way for farmers and growers to start their digital journey.
“We know from experience and research the barriers and concerns that prevent farmers and growers from adopting or even trying new technology, but we also know the huge benefits that smart digital tools provide. These benefits apply to both individual operations as well as the New Zealand agriculture industry as whole; the growth in production and profit could be significant if more Kiwi land-based business embraced digital tools and technology,” says McEwen.
“Having a free version was essential for us to reduce barriers of farmers and growers seeing the benefits of digital technologies. Our team has been building farm management software for over a decade so we understand the huge difference in time savings, accuracy and performance a good farm management tool can make in a farm or land-based business.
"Grow is a mobile-first tool, meaning everyone in your team will have the latest information in their pocket, as things change, in real-time."
The Grow app is built for all farmers and growers including dairy farmers, pastoral farmers, horticulturalists, orchardists, beekeepers, chicken farmers, viticulturalists and more.
FarmIQ’s Head of Sales and Marketing, Russell MacKay, says that the AI voice features will be an attractive and useful feature for users.
“Using some clever AI technology, Grow lets users record a voice note or task on the app, without having to type it in. It’s a pain when your hands are covered in who-knows-what and you need to write something down, so the AI voice features make it much easier: simply talk to the app and Grow will create a task, assign it to a staff member if needed and add it to the diary. Easy as,” says MacKay.
The way that Grow has been built makes it easy for users to add the features they want, rather than be overwhelmed with a large system at the start. If users find they are requiring even more features beyond the paid add-ons, they can simply upgrade to a FarmIQ pack.
“There is no replacing the connection and gutfeel that comes with working the land - and we don't want to. We just want to help farmers and growers embrace technology that lightens the load a little and lets them get on with the job they love,” says McEwen.
