University enters farming apps market with livestock grazing aid (From Smallholder)

University enters farming apps market with livestock grazing aid

12:00pm Tuesday 17th July 2012 in News

Aberystwyth University has developed its first commercial app for the farm sector which will be officially launched at the Royal Welsh Show on Tuesday 24 July.

The guest speaker at the event will be Dr Christianne Glossop, Chief Veterinary Officer to the Welsh Government.

The farmGRAZE app, based on the expertise of a team from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), will help farmers to manage livestock grazing more efficiently and save money on feed and fertiliser.

This android app will allow farmers to calculate the grazing available to their livestock in a particular field and across their holding.

Dr Rhian Hayward from Commercialisation and Consultancy Services at the University, explains, “This app is the result of an apps challenge we held for staff and students last year to transform research based ideas into mobile app concepts.

“As a university, we are in a strong position to realise the commercial value in our technologies and expertise. Transferring research into commercial products and services is of importance to us and I’m sure we will see many more apps developed in the future.”

There are two versions of the app available for farmers - a free version and a paid version. The free version will help farmers make better management decisions, improve their grazing swards and offer tips on grassland management.

The paid (£5.99) version goes that extra step further and will save grass measurement data, plot grass wedge information graphically, export information to your e-mail in spreadsheet format and set reminders to check grass height in a person’s phone calendar.

farmGRAZE has been developed in partnership with Arkuris Ltd and software developer CEMAS. More information can be found on the website: www.mobilefarmapps.com

 

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