Farm Management Tech Tips

If you’re like me, you rely heavily on your PC, cellphone, and the internet to conduct your farm business and to research farm products. For this article, I thought I’d share with you some of the tech tips I use to make things a little easier on the farm. First, let me give you a disclaimer: I do not, nor does OSU Extension and the Ohio Ag Manager Team, endorse any of these products. These products are merely suggested for your convenience.

Ever have a great idea while in the tractor and no pen or paper handy? Or perhaps you’re in the middle of a field and need to email your seed sales representative. No problem any more with Jott (jott.com). Call the Jott number, it beeps, you leave a message. Jott sends the message to yourself, your seed rep, or whoever you choose. Jott sends your audio recording, transcribes your audio, and sends both in an email to your recipient. And whether that recipient is you or someone else, the email is received nearly instantly. I swear by it.

The first rule of good online password management is that you should have a unique password for each online account you have. I must have at least a dozen online accounts, and I have a different password for each account. That is, my password for my bank accounts is different from the password I use for my email, etc. So to help me manage my passwords I use the free online service Passlet (passlet.com). Passlet is a no-frills, free service (I like free), that allows you to store all of your passwords at one site. Other password managers I have used that have more features than Passlet include Clipperz (clipperz.com) and Passpack (passpack.com)

You’ve got the latest GPS mapping tools, and have created some really useful maps of your fields and saved those files on your computer. Also, you’ve got several years of yield records on your computer. If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to consider backing up those files so that you don’t lose all your data. Storing everything in back up device or hard disk is not always feasible (loss during a fire, some devices can get expensive, etc.). I backup my files online to avoid the problems associated with using a separate device for backup. I use Box (box.net) for my online storage needs. There is no special software to install, and users get one gigabyte of storage for free. Box.net is more of a file sharing service than a true backup service. For online automatic backup services you may want to look at Mozy (mozy.com) or Carbonite (carbonite.com). Please note, Mozy and Carbonite are fee-based backup services.

I rely on my computer for many different tasks, and try to keep it as ‘virus-free’ as ossible. To help with computer viruses, I use the AVG Free Edition for anti-virus software (free.grisoft.com). The program requires installation, but it is easy to install, simple to use and requires relatively little resources from your computer. It features automatic update functionality and real-time protection as files are opened and programs are run.

What if I told you that there is a free service that can ring all your phones at once? Also, there’s no longer any need to check cellphone messages and answering machine messages. Perhaps you missed a call on your cell when you were at home and wished your cell number would ring your home phone. No longer do you have to worry about any of this because Google GrandCentral has rolled out a service to unify all your telephone numbers (grandcentral.com). It takes the best features of a Blackberry, an iPhone, and a cellphone, and combines them in a web service. For now, you’ll have to reserve a number. When a number becomes available, you’ll receive an email from GrandCentral for you to officially register.


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