6 ms·

Old McDonald had an app: FarmLogs lands $1M to modernize farm management

66 points by vollmarj 14y ago

jcarden 14y ago
Awesome job guys. Way to go.
protomyth 14y ago
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.
- vollmarj 14y ago
  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.
  - randomdata 14y ago
    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. [1] http://www.fccsoftware.ca/en/index.asp http://www.fccsoftware.ca/en/index.asp
  - protomyth 14y ago
    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.
ahelwer 14y ago
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.
- vollmarj 14y ago
  Cool thanks for sharing and thanks for the feedback. Feel free to put him in touch with us directly I'm at jesse (at) farmlogs.com.
  - ahelwer 14y ago
    Neat, I've passed that along! Best of luck, it looks like you guys are doing good work and I really hope you succeed.
- pplante 14y ago
  I didn't believe your comment about the Combine, so I googled it. Farmers are pretty awesome hackers: http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,8436.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,8436.0.html
- rmason 14y ago
  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.
jacques_chester 14y ago
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.
polemic 14y ago
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. Be interesting to see how it goes.
- rogerbinns 14y ago
  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. http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/new-zealand-farmers-dont-want-subsidies http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/new-zealand-farm...
- eatmorekale 14y ago
  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 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-triumph-of-the-family-farm/308998/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-triu...
smoyer 14y ago
While FarmLogs may have unique selling points, there's already a lot of software targeted at farmers ... I can think of two in my local area: - http://www.agintegrated.com/ http://www.agintegrated.com/ - http://www.zedxinc.com/ http://www.zedxinc.com/
mvip 14y ago
Great job Jesse et al.!
kochb 14y ago
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.

66 points by vollmarj 14y ago

Awesome job guys. Way to go.

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.

vollmarj 14y ago
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.
- randomdata 14y ago
  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. [1] http://www.fccsoftware.ca/en/index.asp http://www.fccsoftware.ca/en/index.asp
- protomyth 14y ago
  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.

ahelwer 14y ago

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.

vollmarj 14y ago
Cool thanks for sharing and thanks for the feedback. Feel free to put him in touch with us directly I'm at jesse (at) farmlogs.com.
- ahelwer 14y ago
  Neat, I've passed that along! Best of luck, it looks like you guys are doing good work and I really hope you succeed.
pplante 14y ago
I didn't believe your comment about the Combine, so I googled it. Farmers are pretty awesome hackers: http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,8436.0.html http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,8436.0.html
rmason 14y ago
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.

jacques_chester 14y ago

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.

polemic 14y ago

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. Be interesting to see how it goes.

rogerbinns 14y ago
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. http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/new-zealand-farmers-dont-want-subsidies http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/new-zealand-farm...
eatmorekale 14y ago
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 http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-triumph-of-the-family-farm/308998/ http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-triu...

smoyer 14y ago

While FarmLogs may have unique selling points, there's already a lot of software targeted at farmers ... I can think of two in my local area: - http://www.agintegrated.com/ http://www.agintegrated.com/ - http://www.zedxinc.com/ http://www.zedxinc.com/

mvip 14y ago

Great job Jesse et al.!

kochb 14y ago

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.