Looking to understand everyday challenges in farming and forestry

Alex A.

Hey everyone,

I’m Alex, a software developer from Dublin curious about the day-to-day challenges folks face running small farms or forestry work — especially the bits that eat up your time or feel like a hassle.

If you’re involved in this kind of work, I’d love to hear from you:

• What tasks take longer than they should?
• Are there admin or tracking jobs you wish were easier?
• Do you use any software or apps that don’t quite fit your needs?
• Is the software you use too expensive or complicated?

I’m not selling anything — just hoping to learn and maybe share tips or helpful techniques I come across during my research.

Feel free to reply here or send me a DM if that’s easier.

By the way, if you're willing to spend 2-3 minutes on a quick survey, that would mean a lot. It's anonymous and all questions are optional:

https://forms.gle/GREdcGBVwwG7rqmw6

Truly yours.

Jb1989

Dept of agricultures own online facility is fairly tiresome to use, not ideal.

Getting farm information here on boards. Ie is painful with so many glitches on this site.

blue5000

+1 on the agfood website, it's about 20 years out of date at this stage.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058410312/looking-to-understand-everyday-challenges-in-farming-and-forestry

Hi Alex, welcome to Boards.
Are you studying or already working in the agri software field.
I'm a software developer myself and work on trying to solve data interoperability issues between various farm systems.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123462682#Comment_123462682

While I agree ...at least I can kind of use it...I'd be afraid of how much they'd **** it up if they tried to redevelop it or the kind of delays with everything else it could cause

bogman_bass

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123457261#Comment_123457261

I don’t know why thy can’t hire a UX designer

roosterman71

1. Anything to do with agfood is non intuitive, and doesn't flow naturally from page to page, section to section.
2. There are a lot of regulations in farming, but no one-stop shop listing them. Ideally if you sign up to a scheme, it will show you somewhere what your obligations are
3. There's lots of restrictions around N & P allowances, but good luck finding somewhere that will give you a calculation based on your allowances and where you can specify your inputs, rates, etc to easily see your remaining allowances
4. A huge amount of things are created and it seems the only way to understand/comply is to pay an advisor of some sort. More money leaving for no gain

whelan2

Dealing with banks, has to have been the most stressful thing I've done ever. Ulster bank were fine but aib nearly put me in an early grave, no need for it.

Siamsa Sessions

The agri-tech sector is a busy space - I work in it off-farm.

There's no shortage of apps or software out there that promise to do everything, and lots of policy-makers and academics who constantly ask themselves "why won't farmers use these apps?", but the reality is that most don't help much at all and it's more hassle than its worth trying to install, learn how to use, constantly enter data, and then hope the "models" or estimates give something of a decent answer back.

I think the polite people say, "The cost-benefit has not yet been established". Remember too that software works in very straight lines and there are none of those in nature.

Edit to add: on a personal level, I find PastureBase and HerdWatch/ICBF useful. After that it's Google Sheets for me.

Alex A.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123462715#Comment_123462715

Hi and thank you!
To your question: neither — I do software professionally for the last ~8 years.
I noticed a lot of conversations about tough environment in farming, that is why I started looking into problems in this area.

I keep getting valuable responses and form submissions (thanks everyone participating), but it is a little early to make any conclusions,

One thing I noticed is that it appears that the last thing a farmer wants today is a new piece of software they have to pay for — @Siamsa Sessions is on point.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123464477#Comment_123464477

One thing I noticed is that it appears that the last thing a farmer wants today is a new piece of software they have to pay for — @Siamsa Sessions is on point.

Margins are tight on a lot of farms, but farmers are already using lots of free and paid apps in their businesses.
Paid apps really need to show value for money.

Personally, I think the biggest issue is where there is too much admin in maintaining the app/s. Farmers don't want to spend all day inputting data; they especially don't want to input essentially the same data into multiple apps. Lack of industry standards for sharing data between the different systems is an issue.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123464598#Comment_123464598

Agreed - it's the effort to enter data constantly for questionable return that's the major issue.

The financial cost is often cited as a barrier but farmers spend tens and hundreds of thousand on machinery and sheds/yards every year. The difference is farmers see the return on that investment but the return on investment for yet another app or more software has yet to be proven.

_Brian

I’d say a big fear is investing time and money into loading your data into an app, come to rely on it, and then after a few years the developer tries to extort more value than the app adds. We saw LSL try this move when they thought they had gained enough clout that they couldn’t be done without.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123465021#Comment_123465021

To be fair, they have costs and need a revenue stream. But LSL wanted it everyway with advertising revenue, charging the marts and then adding a significant charge to individual farmers in a market where all of the other providers are free.

When it comes to other apps for recording data for compliance etc you'll always have the option to leave them, just make sure to export all of your data as PDFs and CSV/Excel files that way it won't have been a waste of time and you'll still have the valuable data for any inspection based on the time you were using them.

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123465021#Comment_123465021

That sounds just like Herdwatch, lock to the useful tools and jack up the price year on year

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123465258#Comment_123465258

There are other providers of herd software.

visatorro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123465258#Comment_123465258

I'm with herd watch a long time. Was very cheap when I started. Gone up every year since. It's expensive now. It does everything i need it to do in fairness and when it's working I'm reluctant to leave but I should threaten leaving if nothing else!

visatorro

Iv a bord bia coming up shortly, I presume I could just leave after it, then I'd be starting a fresh set of records for next inspection.?Everything else isn't that important records wise to me.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123465329#Comment_123465329

If you're having an inspection shortly, then it probably makes sense to change afterwards because you know your way around your current package. But as long as you save what is needed from your current records, the exported PDF and/or spreadsheet reports would be just as valid for any inspection as access to the live system.

kerryjack

Biggest challenge I have is working fool time a bit of farming and kids activities, my own father didn't have these problems because he didn't work outside the farm and he didn't do kids activities, nor did my mother as she didn't drive, I feel guilty if I can't be at a match or bring them for a trip the weekends as I know how fast they grow up and want to enjoy it all but inevitably somethings have to give so in my house it's farming 3rd job second and kids first.

Siamsa Sessions

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123470703#Comment_123470703

I'm not sure there's an app or software for that but I'm in a similar boat. It doesn't always work out but I aim for young lads first, then cows second, and the off-farm job third.

As long as it's only the odd time, then it's no harm if the young lads have to wait. I've myself convinced it adds a bit of colour and variety to their upbringing. It might be worse if they grew up thinking the whole world revolved around them.

_Brian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123470703#Comment_123470703

I intentionally chose family time over expanding the farm as I work full time. Girls are 23 & 16 now and I don’t regret it a bit. Never ever put a €1 of money into the farm that wasn’t earned on the farm, with a young family I chose spend it on family holidays and the like.

emaherx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123470703#Comment_123470703

I guess in the context of this thread, any software or technology that can save you time in admin can help with time for all 3. Of course, most of us will probably lose more time down a TikTok/YouTube rabbit hole than we will ever save on our Admin time anyway.

But absolutely, I've been that busy fool long enough too, I changed career so that I can work from home, with the hours I want, just so that I can be more available for the kids, and it also makes the farming easier too.