Hah. My brother-in-law was talking to me about how much farmers would appreciate software like this the Christmas before last. His family runs quite the complicated operation, and farmers will surprise you with how cutting edge they are technologically. If you search it there's a farmer who rigged up an Arduino to drive his combine (autosteer systems can run into the tens of thousands).
Edit: I just texted my brother-in-law asking about FarmLogs. He said he just did a trial, it was pretty expensive. Now he's liking an app called "Farm at Hand", he's met the main developer and talked with him over email. Personal interaction seems to mean a LOT to farmers. Apparently the app is good and on the right track but needs a bit of tweaking. Also Farm Credit Canada is supposed to be coming out with an app soon that's going to be good at record keeping.
I've spent twenty years in the fertilizer business and written software for both fertilizer and seed businesses.
The amount they're charging would be reasonable if the software integrated with the fertilizer dealer and/or farm consultants software. Very few farmers in Michigan bypass the dealer for services. In the short planting season both the farmer and his dealer need to be working together closely as a team.
If FarmLogs made that easy they'd have fertilizer dealers as unpaid salespeople similar to the way accountants convinced their small business clients to start using Quickbooks.
This is Himanshu one of the co-founders of Farm At Hand. We are constantly working on improving existing features and adding new features. We appreciate the feedback and are here to talk to our customers any time they would like. As my co-founder is also a farmer she understands the importance of personal interactions with our users. Feel free to contact me at any time. My email is Himanshu(at)farmathand(dot)com
I definitely was. It was a great trade show. Please let your brother-in-law (and anyone else) know that we are always looking to speak with farmers. We're always look to learn about what new feature might make their work easier. Feel free to contact me at any time!
Modern farms are high tech operations run by highly knowledgeable experts. In fact, the line in the article "...while farming might seem like an odd place for tech investment.." is laughable. Many farmers in New Zealand, for example, have android tablets in their tractors feeding their GPS coordinates back to base, and giving them live information about rainfall for that paddock, etc. Every cow's hereditary is tracked, and individuals that produce interesting variants of milk are tested and studied.
So, the problem with the SaaS model is that selling to farmers is a lot like selling to a demanding enterprise customer. They know what they want, they have specific requirements and the benefits of a well-matched solution will pay for itself. That isn't, generally, where you want to be if you're looking to scale out a SaaS platform.
Farmers in New Zealand have the advantage of clear transparent markets. In the US and EU markets are severely distorted due to subsidies and related regulations.
More on technology in farming from an Atlantic piece from last summer:
Continuous technological improvements have resulted in a system of crop farming that someone who left the countryside 20 years ago would be hard-pressed to recognize, and certainly couldn’t operate
This is a good solid niche to work in. Especially since, by creating a shared supply chain, you can tap into network effects to create barriers to entry.
In Australia I know people who are working on a similar product -- Agworld.com.au.
The article has a bit of a misstatement about Cargill and its cohorts in regards to this type of technology. They are actively selling this support to farms of all sizes and have been for years. I wish these folks luck, but they are competing against some of the biggest companies in the world who have been pushing this tech for awhile.
You are absolutely right that the article is incorrect about Cargill and ADM. Those companies don't actually grow the crops themselves, but rather they buy them from the farmers (big and small). We (FarmLogs) have happy customers of all sizes from some of the biggest farms in the country to very tiny operations. Even though some of the big ag companies do have some limited software for farms, there is still plenty of room for innovation that only a startup can deliver.
In Canada, as I'm sure you are aware, the government owned FCC offers software to farmers[1] that seems to attempt to solve many of the same problems your software does. Do you feel it will be difficult to compete in this market, assuming you wish to expand internationally, given their market position?
As a farmer and software developer myself, it is great to see some startups in this space. I'm quite interested to see where you take the company.
Those big companies wrap their purchasing of grain with their websites, services, and hedging. I wish you luck, but the bundling of services has been going on for years.
Thank you to all of you commenters from the FarmLogs team! Your feedback helps give us a glimpse of things we haven't learned yet, and it encourages us when you bring up things we're already using to our advantage.
PS - We're hiring an awesome front end dev, and mobile, if you'd like to join.
Edit: I just texted my brother-in-law asking about FarmLogs. He said he just did a trial, it was pretty expensive. Now he's liking an app called "Farm at Hand", he's met the main developer and talked with him over email. Personal interaction seems to mean a LOT to farmers. Apparently the app is good and on the right track but needs a bit of tweaking. Also Farm Credit Canada is supposed to be coming out with an app soon that's going to be good at record keeping.