The figures amazed the Lincoln University survey team, lead supervisor Shirley Gibbs said.
“It was a huge range of different sorts of software and what the farmers were telling us was that there was a lack of integration between them.”
There was frustration at having to use a number of different programmes to do the various tasks, sometimes needing two types of tool when they believed they should need only one.
Because of time constraints, only 10 farmers were involved in the survey by student Jamie Evans, down from a target figure of 20.
“They were in different types of farming so they weren’t all in dairy or in sheep and while it isn’t completely representative we think it gives us an idea of what’s going on,” Gibbs said.
Her study team at Lincoln’s Department of Infomatics and Enabling Technology planned to build on the work already done, including discussions with digital software developers so farm applications could be improved.
The farmers interviewed by Evans were enthusiastic about using digital software but their experiences included inadequate integration between the different applications, a lack of desired features and functionality in some of the programmes and concern over the time it took to learn how to use the software.
Linked to that were concerns over communications and IT support with some farmers saying software providers weren’t always responsive to their needs.
The study team also planned to talk to software developers about the need to make the programmes easier for users.
“It was a huge range of different sorts of software and what the farmers were telling us was that there was a lack of integration between them.”
Shirley Gibbs
Lincoln University
With different companies involved in the industry, the farm sector could not just pick one developer as the choice could be the wrong one.
The solution was to get a more integrated interface between them and the team had a doctorate student studying that.
The farmer group included a range of technology users from early adopters to those who would have been happier farming the old way but were changing “because there was an acceptance that they had to”, Gibbs said.
The use of the farm nutrient programme Overseer was one factor as was an acceptance that it was easier to get all the information to the farm accountant.
All farmers were using a lot of generalised software rather than packages specifically for onfarm use and because of that limitation one farmer even started writing his own software.
“He’s using the data but then pushing out further.”
The farm technology tools included weather forecasting, planning for optimum seed planting and recording moisture levels.
The exploratory project was funded by the Royal Society.
The team would now seek funding from Lincoln University to take its work a stage further, including getting a paid researcher to take over from Evans, who was back studying.
