Farming is one of the most challenging professions in the world. Whether you farm crops or livestock, your job feeds hundreds or thousands of people in your community and communities worldwide. While there’s no way to completely take the guesswork and difficulty out of farming, there are technologies to help make farm management easier for you and your team.
Irrigation Systems
The first technology that can help you manage your farm is optimized irrigation systems. Whether you raise food or animals, your farm goes through a lot of water every season. Making sure everything gets watered can take up a significant portion of your day, even if you have plenty of farm hands helping you out. Rather than spending valuable time standing by a hose waiting for troughs to fill, consider installing smart irrigation systems or automatic waterers. While these technologies have a high price point up front, they pay for themselves in convenience and save time.
On the agricultural side of things, precision irrigation can save you time and money during the growing season. While traditional crop watering methods get your fields saturated, there is a lot of unrecyclable runoff due to fertilizer and pesticides. This water waste harms the environment in turn, all while costing you money on your water bill. Rather than spending more than necessary, install a precision irrigation system to care for your crops. You can minimize runoff, protect your fields, and get your crops looking beautiful by the season’s end.
Farm Management Software
The second tech advancement that can make running a farm easier is farm management software. Chances are, you use a type of management software to keep things organized around the property. By upgrading your work computers to tech specifically designed for farmers, you can utilize data to optimize each crop yield. These software programs include information about watering schedules, planting dates, weather forecasts, and blight warnings. Knowing this information ahead of time will give you an edge before your growing season even starts.
Along with helping you plant at the optimal time, farm management software will help you harvest on the best schedule for your specific crop. Depending on what you’re growing, the harvest schedule will need to adjust to weather needs. By using farming software, you can time your harvest correctly and take the guesswork out of the end of your season. You’ll be able to rest easy knowing your crops are being processed at their best state for the highest profit. If you want to optimize your farm systems, think about getting some form of farm management software.
Livestock Welfare Technology
The final thing you can do to make farm management easier is to employ some form of livestock welfare technology. This tech is designed for one purpose- to keep your animals healthy and fat before you sell. There are many forms of livestock welfare technology, each with different individual focuses. For instance, barn monitoring systems will allow you to keep an eye on your animals when they’re inside. If an animal is down or injured, the cameras will make it easier for you to catch it early on.
When it comes to individual monitoring, you have several options. There are health monitor collars or hip sensors to track general health statistics throughout your herds. Additionally, pregnancies can be monitored more closely with these technologies while the animal still gets the mental and emotional benefits of pasture. Every livestock farmer knows that healthy animals are happy ones; with monitoring systems, you can ensure each animal in your care is as healthy as possible.
To sum things up, farming will never be an easy job. It will always be tiring, messy, and emotionally taxing. However, owning or managing a farm doesn’t have to be overly complicated. With these three tech solutions, you can run your farm smoothly and increase your profits. Whether you have a hobby stable or a commercial farm, running things can be easier.