Thursday, June 2, 2011

Beef? There's an App for that.

It's happened- I've converted to the iPhone.

I've always been a lover of a good solid brick-like phone that I could drop/spill on/drive over and have it come out unscathed, but my hectic life and love for social media necessitated an upgrade. So far, I love my iPhone 4. It's unlimited functions can take care of almost every aspect of my schedule, and provide me with endless gadgets to play with. 

Always looking for new outlets for my #agnerd side, I started surfing around the App Store for agriculture-related apps. I never realized that the statement, "There's an app for everything" could be so true.

For all my iPhoney and ag-loving or ag-curious friends, I've done the homework for you. All of these apps are right in your app store, and the majority of them are completely free. So whether you're grilling, registering purebred cattle, or wanting to hear the sounds of a ranch, these apps should fulfill your every ranchy or farmy need.

Consumers. There are some great recipe, cooking, and BBQ apps out there to educate you on how to get the most out of your beef. Here's some favorites I found:

iBBQ (free) covers every factor of outdoor grilling


Beef Steak- Bistecche ($0.99) educates on cuts of meat 
and how to prepare them.
A similar app is Ask the Butcher($1.99).

Some of the best recipe apps I came across were Beef Recipes, Easy Beef Meals, and Learn to Cook Beef. These were all $0.99 to $3.99.


Agri-tourism is growing into it's own industry. The best app I found for this was Ranchweb(free), which provides  a database of ranches urbanites can visit as well as ranch real estate, jobs, and fly fishing tours.
Ranchers and Farmers, or #agnerds like myself now have access to tons of resources to improve our communication with the industry as well as the efficiency of individual operations.

AGRIplot ($0.99) makes the crop insurance agent in me very excited. You can measure out the area or distance between points you make, as long as you have a GPS signal. This could make reporting unseeded acres or sloughs much easier for farmers.

AgWired(free) provides a constantly updated feed on issues concerning the ag industry via a variety of platforms, including YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter.

 The app that may cause my Dad to convert to the iPhone is iRanchCalculator(basic version free). It generates data from average daily gain to breakeven costs of owning cattle. If you like this, check out Beef Producer and Cattle EPDs.

More #farmingsmarter apps that could be life changing:
Dynamic Pricing Platform (grain prices, firm offers)
PureSense Irrigation Manager
Seed Rate Calculator

Have you found any great Apps that educate about agriculture or help you with your operation?


4 comments:

  1. Thanks ro. I am most definitely gonna invest in a few of those. And also my iPhone is the most durable phone I have ever owned. It's a good investment:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I first got my Droid, 8 months ago it was like a whole new world! Love the apps. Enjoy your iPhone:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're welcome Celia, I'm loving my phone so far!

    It really is a whole new world, and I sure will :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm still in the ranks of those who don't own a smartphone, but wow, what a bunch of great apps for agriculture! So glad to see ag hasn't been left out in the cold when it comes to apps and technology.

    ReplyDelete