This number ("one in three") is really ambiguous[0], as I haven't seen them state what they consider a farm to be. It could be the Ag Census data (~2.2 million farms), or along some subset (say non-family farms at ~90 thousand), or some farm type (I believe I've previously seen them say "row crop farms").<p>I'm sure it seems like an impressive stat to throw out there, but it's a lot like saying they're offering a million shares of options to new employees; without the total number of shares we don't know what that means.<p>[0] <a href="http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/ag101/demographics.html</a>
There are more than 2 million "farms" in the U.S. Snag "One in Three" of those as paying customers (at nearly $1k/year) and it's very unlikely you'd need to use TechCrunch as a marketing and PR platform.
I'd like to get a more comprehensive look at FarmLogs, hopefully they'll be more available in Australia soon. Although until then, after just browsing through the interface, I'd like to make a few points. I should point out I'm from a broad-acre farm of > 10'000acres, and we have single fields nearly 2.5x bigger than the 600acre size mentioned..<p>There's still seems to be to much of a focus on farmers having to manually enter data. Our machinery already records everything that happens in the paddock, there's no reason why we should have to sit down and manually enter everything we do. Farmlogs should connect to whichever machinery provider we use's API, and pull all the data straight from the machine. It's now possible to do that in real time, and it opens up far more interesting opportunities, (for example optimising variable rate maps in real time) as we can also push data back to the machines.<p>How do I connect and use my local weather station data within FarmLogs? One limitation of our current yield prediction software is that it's weather data feed comes from a BOM station nearly 30km away, that isn't nearly good enough, so we're seeing a transition to on farm weather stations. Ultimately we need to be able to collect weather info on a field by field basis, not only for crop modelling and yield prediction, but to better optimise harvesting/swathing schedules, and make more effective N applications (we can create better application maps based on the yield models + predicted weather).<p>Can I import my all my soil data? We've had extensive EM38 mapping, radio-metrics and soil testing done over the farm to better calibrate our yield models, and improve nutrient application, how do I put that data into FarmLogs? If I can, how do you use it? Can you generate my VR maps based on soil data + predicted weather information?<p>I'm also seeing some features that most farmers I know will never use. We don't need "another" calendar. We don't need to keep a record of all the grain we have stored in silos, or upload information about every piece of machinery we have on farm. What benefit does that give us? It seems like your almost trying to gameify farming with all the graphics..<p>I think tools like FarmLogs need to move away from just data collection/consolidation and much more towards yield prediction/modelling, and giving recommendations/optimising nutrient applications. We spend more than $500'000 a year on fert/chemicals, so if you can help me make a more precise variable rate map and save me 10% of that figure, thats something I'm going to use. Even if your charging me $5000/10'000/x'000 a year for it.
I wonder what their stack is. I can't readily determine that, which might just be a function of working too hard today. I don't have time to search for the info. (I was specifically wondering if they use Hadoop.)
1) The statistic is utter baloney 2) see "The Climate Corporation" for a real version of this. Founded 2006 by ex-Googlers, real tech, acquired by Monsanto for $1.1B, and best creepy-corp name ever.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Climate_Corporation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Climate_Corporation</a>
I have been silently following FarmLogs for a long time, it is wonderful to see technology being merged with nature. I often thought about what it would be like working for them but the problem is that I'm from mid europe (Hungary).
The majority of our country is farmland, we even have a somewhat similar and quite successful startup here, SmartVineyard who do similar stuff but specifically for grapes. Is it possible for non-US developers to join FarmLogs without relocating?
Could you explain what FarmLogs does to someone that a) grew up on a deciduous fruit farm with some cattle, b) studied electronic engineering with computer science, c) works in embedded systems and d) doesn't come from the US?