Farmers: it’s time to put away the pocket protector. Your phone can do the work of dozens of seed corn pens and notebooks, says University of Missouri Extension agricultural engineering specialist Charles Ellis.
Rapidly changing technology means that a variety of helpful tools are at your fingertips, says Ellis. He gives a few of his favorites.
QR (quick response) codes are black-and-white squares that your smartphone or tablet camera reads. By pointing your smartphone camera at a QR code, you can instantly link to webpages.
Liken it to a bar code at the grocery store or the local farm store, says Ellis. It is just another standardized way for the user to get stored information. This information may include maintenance records of equipment, herbicide labels and operator manuals.
You can scan documents such as scale tickets, sales receipts, etc., using your phone camera and create PDF files that are stored in folders. Unique QR codes created with an app on your phone can be placed in each piece of equipment for access.
MU Commercial Agriculture’s Horizon Point, at , is a free service that sends a daily, customized report by email. It gives information for planting depth and soil temperature, animal comfort indices, rainfall runoff estimator and scouting aids for weeds and insects, among other things.
Horizon Point gives forecasts and historical data for precipitation, temperature and wind.
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Categories: Missouri, Crops