Using a handheld device would seem to make perfect sense for recording farm data – after all, the real farming happens outside not in the office.  Modern touch screen devices like smartphones and tablets have the potential to greatly improve the speed and accuracy of routine record keeping.  In this blog post, I’m offering some points to consider if you’re thinking about using a handheld device.

Data storage and wireless data transfer

The great majority of farm software packages store your data – let’s call it the master database – on your computer’s hard disk. In the past, transferring (synchronising) data between a handheld device and the office PC involved connecting the two via a cable.

In this age of smartphones and tablets, synchronising data wirelessly has become the norm and offers several advantages over cable synchronisation:

• simplicity and convenience
• synchronise data while working outside
• ability to keep several handheld devices fully synchronised during the working day

To get the benefits of wireless synchronisation, your mobile device will need to communicate directly with the computer which holds the master database.

The main point to note here is that it can often be more complicated to set up and use wireless synchronisation when the master data is stored on a single computer in the farm office.  In the case of some older farm software packages, it may not even be possible to use wireless data synchronisation with a modern smartphone or tablet.  I’d recommend that you ask your current farm software supplier about their future plans for mobile.

In my next blog post, I’ll go into further detail on the main methods of wireless synchronisation to a local master database, along with the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Hardware choice

Quite a few of the farm software packages developed over the past 5-10 years offer mobile solutions which rely on handheld computers running Microsoft’s ageing “Windows Mobile” operating system.  Back then, there were plenty handhelds on the market (known as PDAs) from manufacturers like Dell and Hewlett Packard.  Somewhere around 2007, many of these manufacturers started phasing out production of the traditional PDA and started to look towards the coming smartphone market.

So, you may find there are still farm software packages on the market today that require a handheld running Windows Mobile (just to be clear, this is not the same as the new Windows Phone operating system).  The problem is that Windows Mobile won’t be around much longer, and even now is limited to a narrow range of handheld devices. You would probably also find very few options for wireless synchronisation with Windows Mobile.

If you are looking to invest in a future-proof mobile recording solution, I recommend that you look for a package that runs on an Android, iOS (iPhone or iPad) or Blackberry device.  As well making use of the smartphone that might already be in your pocket, there is an increasing range of rugged mobile devices for agriculture on the market.

Here’s a few of the advantages of using a smartphone or tablet for farm data recording:

• fast and responsive touch screen apps
• easy to use
• potential to transfer and access data by Wi-fi or a mobile Internet (3G or 4G) connection
• large choice of hardware in terms of screen sizes and capabilities

Ease of use

It goes without saying that any mobile software (app) should be easy to use, but here’s a quick checklist of points to think about:

• Can you work with your farm data on the handheld offline i.e. without being connected to the Internet? – this is potentially very important in rural areas with a poor mobile Internet signal
• Can you browse existing data as well as record new data?
• Can you easily search specific records when you’re busy outside?
• Are the data entry screens easily accessible for all the common tasks?
• Can you view any recorded information and choose to edit or delete before synchronising to the master database?
• Are the screens well designed? for example, drop-down boxes are better than text entry boxes because you can pick data items from a list rather than having to use your on-screen keyboard. This can dramatically improve the speed and accuracy of data entry