Why Farm Solution Apps and Tech won't save your Farm!

Why Apps and Tech won't save your Farm!

I'm sorry it has been so long in between Blogs...it's been a verrry weird time over the past couple of years! I am still living in Mudgeeraba, Gold Coast QLD, and growing Cut Flowers with Rachael Hardy from The Love Garden (Numinbah Valley), working as a Farm Consultant (1 Acre Farming for Profit) and Farm Marketer.

I am often contacted by companies trying to sell me the 'software solution' to make my life easier and more profitable as a farmher.

Recently I have even been interviewed, by a couple of companies wanting to develop these type of platform app solutions who are doing their market research by speaking with experienced growers.

However, the honest truth of it is, that if you don't know how to farm, and have actual lived experience farming, then all these software solutions will be useless to you ...

Why?

Because you will not have a reference point to understand the consequences of your decision making over time upon your farm, and understand how all the various systems interlink, and need to be juggled according to priority.

Farming is unlike other business's because you are dealing with living systems, relationships.

Reliance on an App or Software solution as a beginner can give catastrophic results, as nothing can replace your development of perception ... your senses, your sight, the shade of colour of the grass etc.

For example, I have honestly had people try to sell me water probes to put in the soil, when I get FAR more information by pushing my fingers into the soil - at no expense :)

Farming, like raising children is not a 'convenient' occupation or activity, it is a way of life. Yes, we can use technology to great effect to serve us, and support us ... once we know what we are doing.

As people look more and more to technological solutions they are at risk of becoming disconnected from their urban farm enterprises, from becoming too busy to listen, to observe very closely ... this is the real technology, the fine tuning of our ability to observe Farm services, to listen to the crops, animals, birds, insects and all of life, that forms the macro-organism of the farm.

Indeed this is what has happened with industrialised 'conventional' agriculture, where there are less people on the land, and reliance on heavy machinery and technology to 'manage the farm' ... which has resulted in us as a population, becoming more disconnected from the crops, and animals that are being grown. Which has devastating environmental consequences, that we and future generations will be dealing with for many years to come.

Too often I see and hear inexperienced growers jumping to technological solutions to 'save time and money', however, farming is an apprenticeship to the land, and to the seasons, requiring flexibility, and presence, else she will become your teacher of humility :)
As you work with the land, day after day, year after year you become attuned to it, very deeply.

I am all for technology, in fact the other part of my work is in digital marketing - being both a grower and a farm marketer, I have a unique perspective to share.

However, I am also a lover of efficiency, and a practitioner of the LEAN methodology...preferencing simplicity and practicality. The reality is that I run my farm using Trello, Google Sheets, and Google Calendar (all free - and shareable). I have been shown other solutions to manage my farm, some of them look interesting, but a lot of them are quite expensive...maybe one day I will be shown one that will really impress me ... I look forward to that :)

The one thing that technology cannot help you do is to make good decisions, that is why it takes time to grow good farmers too. Technology is exceptional at assisting you to gather the information in order to make good decisions.

So, it is my advice to beginner growers is to keep it simple, and let yourself be taught to farm by honing your ability to observe, and tune into the land, rather than relying on an app that tells you what to plant and when.


From My Heart To Yours


Sheia