They're widely used to to slaughter sassy pigs with angry birds, but how well do tablets and smart phones work to manage actual production of pigs or crops?
A lot of farmers have already purchased these handy devices to access the Internet or run stand-alone generic business apps in between play session.
But what about day-to-day accounting, inventory control or production records?
We'd like to hear about new ideas and experiences from you, our readers, even as we report what some innovators have accomplished so far.
The first farm adaption of tablets has been to go through the Internet to access multiuser farm management software via Terminal Services Windows remote desktop or use peer-to-peer technology like GoToMyPC to log onto another computer's desktop. Effectively, you can do anything on the tablet that you can do on a computer (except print?) anywhere through wireless Internet access. However, data entry can be a bit clumsy using a virtual keyboard and screen sized may not be optimal.
A more cutting-edge approach is to access web-based dashboards for graphical reporting and analysis (see above). In this example the application runs in the built-in browser rather than a Windows desktop.
We're not aware of any true "apps" designed for "internal" farm management, but we're eager to hear from you on what you've found that's truly useful (if not as fun as launching an angry bird with a slingshot).
Note: we'll be reporting from the FBS User Conference on how companies like Conservis are using tablets to record and monitor crop inventories.
