The farming and ranching industries are undergoing a transformation, with innovative technologies being developed to improve the way agricultural enterprises are managed. Over the course of the last two years, a number of iPhone iPad agriculture apps have been introduced with features like field mapping, planting calculations, spray logs, and soil sampling tools.
More than 2.2 million farms currently operate in the U.S., according to recent statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, and yet the industry has traditionally been slow to adopt technologies meant to improve workflows and business operations. By taking the technology that professionals in the agricultural community have been using on their desktop computers for years, and making them accessible on mobile devices, online app vendors are making it easier for farmers to get more work done during peak growing seasons.
Here are our picks for the very best iPhone iPad agriculture apps currently available for iOS users.
Connected Farm for the iPhone/iPad
Change the way you use GPS for field mapping and scouting applications in agriculture. Trimble’s Connected Farm™ app uses your phone’s GPS for mapping field boundaries, locate irrigation pivots, marking flags, and entering scouting information for points, lines, and polygon areas. Scouting attributes include an extensive list of weeds, insects and diseases, and allows you to log the severity of a problem, crop conditions, and more. Photos can be captured and integrated with your scouting attributes.
Price: Free
Mobile Farm Manager for the iPhone/iPad
John Deere Mobile Farm Manager enables instant on-the-go access to all your agronomic data. You can view any map and any report from any year. View historical applications. Analyze historical reports. Use your iPhone® or iPad® GPS to track your position within your fields. Generate grid zones and perform soil sampling tasks and more! Download Mobile Farm Manager today to discover for yourself how you can drive higher levels of productivity and efficiency in your operation.
Price: Free
Spray Lite for the iPhone/iPad
Whether you are a owner operator, contractor or a large corporation Spray App will streamline information from the field back to the office instantly. This Lite version of Spray has a number of restrictions, the most important of which being you can only Preview one spray application at a time.
Price: Free
Extreme Beans for the iPhone/iPad
This application allows soy bean farmers to calculate the amount of soybeans to plant per acre in order to generate the highest yield.
Price: Free
AgFleet for the iPhone/iPad
AgFleet, developed by ZedX Inc., is a powerful decision-support system used to manage the productivity of more than 15 million acres of agricultural land in North America and continues to meet the ever-changing needs of growers, dealers, and other professionals in the precision agriculture space.
Price: Free
Weed Manager PLUS for the iPhone/iPad
Featuring a mobile version of the Crop PHD tool, this app delivers accurate weed management recommendations for your region, a tank mixing tool and a measurement conversion calculator for commercial farmers.
Price: Free
Farm At Hand for the iPhone/iPad
Farm At Hand is the latest innovation in farm management software and products. What makes Farm At Hand different? It is completely mobile. Have access to review and update any information at any time.
Price: Free
AgStudio MAP for the iPhone/iPad
AgStudio MAP is a field boundary and soil sampling application designed to integrate directly with MapShots AgStudio precision agronomy software.
Price: Free
MRTN/Nitrogen Application Calculator for the iPhone/iPad
The Maximum Return To Nitrogen (MRTN) calculations combine the agronomics of nitrogen rate research and the realities of economic fluctuations to provide a customized nitrogen rate.
Price: Free
Scurich Insurance Services has proudly served the Monterey Bay area since 1924. Scurich will take care of all of your insurance needs. Are you a business owner, did you get a new car or maybe you are looking to protect your family in the event of a tragedy? Give us a call, we can help!
We are located at:
Scurich Insurance Services
320 East Lake Avenue, PO Box 1170
Watsonville, CA 95077-1170
Office: 1-831-722-3541
Toll Free: 1-800-320-3666
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Information provided by: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/best-iphone-ipad-agriculture-apps-203850442.html
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers planned to meet yesterday in Washington to re-examine U.S. farm spending for the next five years. Wisconsin Representatives Tom Petri, a Republican, and Ron Kind, a Democrat, planned to use a Capitol Hill rally to call for an “end to handouts,” Petri’s office said in a statement.
Under the insurance program, the U.S. taxpayer subsidizes the majority of premiums paid by farmers, covers much of the administrative costs tallied by insurers to run the program, and guarantees that all losses are covered, according to a series of articles published by Bloomberg News this week.
Crop insurance covered $117 billion worth of product in 2012, including almost all the corn, soybeans, cotton and wheat produced in the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture spent about $14 billion last year on the program as the worst drought in a half century devastated plantings.
Supporters of crop insurance are stepping up their lobbying to preserve the program’s funding levels.
Richard Gibson, founder of American Agrisurance Inc. and a business consultant, told agents of NAU Country Insurance Co. in an e-mail this week to lobby their lawmakers. He said crop insurance had become a target as Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a 2014 budget or a stopgap spending measure to keep the government operating.
“I’ve been around this business since it started, and the bottom line to it is, it’s been a political process since day one,” Gibson said in a phone interview yesterday.
‘Circle the Wagons’
Kind, the Wisconsin Democrat, said he isn’t surprised by the lobbying push. “It’s a very powerful, well-organized lobby out here to try to circle the wagons,” he said in a phone interview.
Petri and Kind co-sponsored legislation in May to cap the total value of crop insurance subsidies to $40,000 per individual annually, and eliminate support for those with adjusted gross incomes of more than $250,000. That measure, which the lawmakers said would save $11 billion over a decade, failed in the House.
“What we’re recommending is not unreasonable,” he said. “This is an area that we can reform” to find cost-savings in the farm legislation.
‘Fiscal Responsibility’
In e-mails to agents, Gibson criticized Bloomberg News stories that examined the program’s costs and vulnerability to fraud. Crop insurers and the USDA said subsidized insurance helps stabilize food prices and protects farmers from the vagaries of weather.
“The program is working, so why does Bloomberg put on the negative ad campaign to destroy it?” Gibson said. He told agents in a Sept. 9 e-mail “to stay engaged with our political representatives” and warned that detractors of the program “will be out in force when and if the farm bill ever reached the conference level.”
Adjustments to the farm bill are still possible as both houses of Congress reconcile separate measures in a conference to shape the final law.
New Hampshire Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who also proposed curtailing payments, said re-examining the program was a “smart way” to reduce the deficit.
“Limiting federal spending on crop insurance is a common- sense fix to some of the government’s most egregious spending and waste,” she said in a statement.
Petition Delivery
The U.S. Public Interest Research Group, which is organizing today’s event, plans to deliver tens of thousands of petitions urging members of Congress to overhaul the program.
“We’re using taxpayer money to pay big companies to buy insurance that they would buy themselves,” Dan Smith, tax and budget advocate for Washington-based U.S. PIRG, said in a phone interview.
President Barack Obama sought this year to cut almost $12 billion from the program in the next decade while Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan has called subsidized insurance “crony capitalism” that needs to be reduced in an effort to curtail federal spending.
Tom Zacharias, president of National Crop Insurance Services, the main lobby for crop insurers, defended spending levels in a statement that said the Bloomberg series showed an “obvious bias” against the program.
Crop insurance “forces farmers to manage risk before, not after it happens, which saves taxpayers money,” Zacharias said.
Gibson said he wasn’t authorized to speak to the press on behalf of NAU Country, a unit of QBE Insurance Group Ltd. of Sydney, Australia and was expressing his own views.
The House legislation is H.R. 2642; Senate is S.954.
Scurich Insurance Services has proudly served the Monterey Bay area since 1924. Scurich will take care of all of your insurance needs. Are you a business owner, did you get a new car or maybe you are looking to protect your family in the event of a tragedy? Give us a call, we can help!
We are located at:
Scurich Insurance Services
320 East Lake Avenue, PO Box 1170
Watsonville, CA 95077-1170
Office: 1-831-722-3541
Toll Free: 1-800-320-3666
Information provided by: http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2013/09/12/304927.htm
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The 2013 Farm Bill presents a real opportunity for substantive changes in U.S. agricultural policy. But instead of reform, both the House and Senate agricultural committees are offering classic bait-and-switch proposals to protect farm subsidies – more than 80 percent of which flow to households much wealthier than the average American family.
As I discuss in my new study for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the bills’ bait is the elimination of the politically toxic Direct Payments program, introduced in 1996, which annually sends about $5 billion in welfare checks to people who own or farm cropland – whether or not they grow any crops. The switch is the introduction of new programs that would give farmers even larger subsidies if either crop prices or average per-acre crop revenues decline from their current record or near-record levels.
In the House farm bill, price supports, through a new Price Loss Coverage program, are the preferred subsidy vehicle. The PLC would establish target prices close to the current near-record market prices for crops like corn, wheat, rice, peanuts and oilseeds. Farmers would then receive payments when market prices fall below those target levels.
Peanut and rice farmers stand to benefit especially from the PLC. The bill’s proposed peanut target price, for example, exceeds any of the Congressional Budget Office market price forecasts for the next five years. While the PLC may indeed benefit Southern-state farm industries, it appears to have little semblance to the “save the family farm” safety net program claimed by its advocates.
The Senate’s farm bill would put taxpayers on the hook for a new program that triggers subsidies when a farmer’s revenues for major crops fall below 88 percent of their recent five-year average. And both the House and Senate farm bills would require taxpayers to cover 70 percent of the costs of a new insurance program to give farms additional “double dip” subsidies if their revenues fall below 90 percent of expected levels.
CBO estimates the new farm subsidy programs will cost about $3.5 billion a year. In fact, several independent studies have shown that if crop prices drop, even quite modestly, American taxpayers will be shelling out far more for these new programs than the $5 billion in claimed savings for the elimination of the Direct Payments program. If crop prices shift towards longer-run historical levels, taxpayers could face an estimated $16 to $20 billion in new farm subsidy costs. That’s a lot of money, and most of it would go to the wealthiest farmers, corporations and landowners in the farm sector.
Most impartial observers would likely conclude there is no valid financial case for federal farm subsidies and special farm safety nets. Farm debt-to-asset ratios are at record lows, prices for major crops are at or close to record highs, and family farms almost never fail (annually, only one in every 200 farms closes its doors because of financial problems). In fact, farming is one of the most profitable and financially secure sectors of the economy.
Both the House and Senate farm bills ignore real reforms, and instead attempt to fool taxpayers with bait-and-switch proposals for new subsidies. Those new programs will give most of their subsidies to America’s most successful and wealthiest farmers and landowners.
And while reforms are necessary, it is more than ironic that the same House Farm Bill schedules substantial cuts to nutrition programs targeted to relatively poor families while continuing, and even increasing, six-figure government handouts to thousands of millionaire corn, peanut, wheat, soybean and rice farmers.
Scurich Insurance Services has proudly served the Monterey Bay area since 1924. Scurich will take care of all of your insurance needs. Are you a business owner, did you get a new car or maybe you are looking to protect your family in the event of a tragedy? Give us a call, we can help!
We are located at:
Scurich Insurance Services
320 East Lake Avenue, PO Box 1170
Watsonville, CA 95077-1170
Office: 1-831-722-3541
Toll Free: 1-800-320-3666
Information provided by: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2013/06/17/congress-appears-unlikely-to-cut-subsidies-for-wealthiest-farmers
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Agribusiness Insurance protects not only your farm in Phillipsburg, KS, but it also provides peace of mind for your shareholders and other individuals or entities that may hold interest in your company. Insurance for your agriculture business protects not just you, but also anyone else who might have an interest in your farming business.
Having a crucial piece of machinery break down or the sudden onset of inclement weather can affect your business. If you have commercial insurance coverage with Scurich Insurance in Watsonville, you can reduce the chances of disaster having a negative impact on your cash flow.
Some types of coverage that can help your agribusiness include the following:
• Should an interruption occur in your cash flow, Income Loss coverage could help you recover some of your revenue.
• Some farm owners give tours of their farm or give hay rides to supplement their income. Agritainment liability will protect you in the event of an injured guest. Custom equipment and tractors can be covered with an Equipment Floater.
• If one of your workers should get injured on the job, Workers’ compensation will give much needed protection.
• Should a critical piece of machinery break down, Mechanical Breakdown coverage will add to your protection.
Call Scurich Insurance Services at 1-800-320-3666 today and find out how you can protect your agribusiness.
Scurich Insurance Services has proudly served the Monterey Bay area since 1924. Scurich will take care of all of your insurance needs. Are you a business owner, did you get a new car or maybe you are looking to protect your family in the event of a tragedy? Give us a call, we can help!
We are located at:
Scurich Insurance Services
320 East Lake Avenue, PO Box 1170
Watsonville, CA 95077-1170
Office: 1-831-722-3541
Toll Free: 1-800-320-3666
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The ammonium nitrate fertilizer plant in West, Texas that exploded last April had only $1 million in Liability insurance, which could cover as little as one percent of the estimated damage from the blast.
What’s more, according to an attorney for Adair Grain, Inc., which owns the West Fertilizer Co. the company did not carry Excess or Umbrella coverage.
The explosion occurred on April 17, killing 15 people (including 10 first responders), and injuring more than 200 others The blast, which left a 90-foot wide crater and registered on the Richter earthquake scale,, damaged or destroyed more than 150 buildings up to nearly 40 blocks away. A spokeswoman from the state insurance department estimated that damage could cost tens of millions of dollars, adding that other sources have pegged potential losses as high as $100 million.
At least six lawsuits representing hundreds of plaintiffs have been filed against the company and its owner. One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Randy Roberts, says that even though he was “floored” by the low level of West Fertilizer’s Liability coverage, “It’s not uncommon to see very serious operations [in Texas] conducted with minimum insurance or, in fact, no insurance.”
He expects that Adair will ask a judge to divide the $1 million in Liability coverage among the plaintiffs, and then file for bankruptcy – after which attorneys will look to see if other companies can be held liable for the explosion. “I don’t see the million taking care of even my three clients, much less the hundreds of people that need to be taken of,” says Roberts.
This disaster reinforces the need to make sure that you carry enough Liability coverage to protect your business against a worst-case scenario. As always, our Scurich Insurance Services Representatives are standing by ready to help.
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Running a farm is a different kind of business with unique insurance needs. Farmland isn’t just a place to work, but a place to call home as well. Having the right kind of coverage depends on the situation of each family.
Although it may not give all of the benefits of a Farm Owners Policy, a Farm Dwelling coverage might just do the trick to keep you and your family protected.
Farm Dwelling Insurance can help pay for damages that occur to the building your living in and any attached structures, even if they’re rental properties. You may also get additional coverage to protect personal items and living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable.
Liability coverage and Medical Payments coverage may not be included in your policy. If your looking for a bit more coverage than what a Farm Dwelling Insurance will provide, you might look into getting a comprehensive Farm Owners policy.
Talk to an agent at Scurich Insurance to find out more about insurance solutions for your agribusiness.
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