Wisconsin soybean growers have a brand new piece of technology available this spring – and it doesn’t cost them a thing!
Dr. Shawn Conley, UW-Extension Soybean Specialist, with the help of soybean checkoff dollars, has unveiled a new app that will allow farmers to generate profit potential on a field FROM that field with some simple clicks on their smart phones. The new “The Bean Cam” app, available for Android and I-Phones, can calculate plant populations using smart phone cameras or manual data entry. That information can let growers know immediately when replanting is necessary – and more importantly, what they can expect for fall yields. It’s just the beginning of the information exchange that may decide many farmers profit potential in a tight market.
Conley says that growers can choose to take a picture with their smart phones or manually count plants. They’ll enter that data, select the row spacings they’re using, label the field for identification purposes and BOOM – not only does the grower have this information, he can immediately transport it on to his crop consultant or coop partner. Obviously crop scouts and other agribusiness partners can do the same thing in a field and generate the information back to the farmer owner too. Conley believes this kind of “in field information generation” will be particularly useful for crop insurance questions, herbicide decisions, and year end reviews on the farm. Conley demonstrated “The Bean Cam” app to a full house at the WI Corn/Soy Expo this year – and farmers in the audience were quick to react! @Agronomyjim tweeted “Best new app for soybean farming. Bean cam. Go get it.”
The app joined another piece of technology that was introduced – a new WI Soybean website. The site: http://badgerbean.com is a one stop location for all types of information relative to Wisconsin soybean growers and curious consumers. It contains educational videos and a steady stream of social media content that changes constantly. Conley believes that interaction’s going to go up substantially when the growing season begins – and as growers and agribusiness partners become more comfortable with how they can use the site.
The bottom line is that these two new tools are designed specifically for Wisconsin growers – on Wisconsin fields – with Wisconsin weather in mind. Conley hopes that the data generated will ultimately help answer some of the big questions the state soybean growers are facing over yield potential – environmental impact – sustainability and profitability.