Australian Mapping and FARMap
Managing livestock movements, joining and calving dates, welfare management like drenching and vaccination dates often stretches the memory or leads to a lot of paperwork at the end of the day.
Australian Mapping owner Sam Baulch has now simplified the entire process with his recently released app, FARMap.
“One of the main reasons I wanted to develop FARMap was for dairy, sheep and beef farmers,” said Mr Baulch. “They normally have a big whiteboard in the shed with the map of the farm and that is their communication tool.” FARMap will either replace or enhance that whiteboard.”
For the past 15 years Mr Baulch has been working with farmers to map their farm accurately and has mapped over 400 farms in that time.
“Great savings can be made by accurately knowing the paddock areas and cutting down mistakes made by contractors when they work with a good map.” he said.
Four years ago Mr Baulch started looking into developing an app and subsequently employed an app developer to develop FARMap.
While development has been slower and much more involved than expected, Mr Baulch is still excited to see the app released to the market on computer, IOS and android.
“I was asking my clients what program they used for livestock and paddock record keeping and many told me the programs they looked at were too complicated, and they couldn’t be bothered entering data into the computer when they got back home at night” he said.
The app can be used on multiple devices so it can be shared with everyone on the farm.
An icon will show on the paddock map where the livestock are, and data can be entered on the go with any device and instantly updated to all other devices on the farm.
The idea is that farmers will be able to map their own farm within the app from a Google maps image, or upload an existing map previously produced by Mr Baulch.
Mr Baulch started Australian Mapping in 2009 after realising many farmers did not have accurate maps of their own farms.
“I saw that a lot of farmers did not have a decent map of their farm, but only had a mud map which was so inaccurate,” he said.
Accurate maps enable more accurate application of fertiliser, chemicals and stocking rates, ultimately saving money and resulting in better management of the farm.
Much like an accurate map can save money and time, Mr Baulch expects FARMap will do the same when it comes to audit time for farmers, producing reports in pdf format with the ability to email the report straight from the phone.
“Instead of hunting around through paperwork, farmers will be able to use FARMap,” he said. “It is easy to input data and to produce reports.”
The recently released app will enable farmers to have their farm map on their phone and computer linked to each other and all staff related to their business.
All paddock and livestock treatments and movements can then be recorded with the information always with them and synced with any other person on the farm.
Learn more by visiting australianmapping.com.au or farmap.com.au