FARM Proud Blog

The National Dairy FARM Program would not function without the commitment of the more than 370 trained individuals who perform the FARM Program evaluations. Since the Program began in 2009, more than 38,000 evaluations have been performed by these dedicated FARM Program evaluators, and up until now, those evaluations have been performed old school: with pencil and paper.

Now, thanks to a custom mobile app built using revolutionary technology called AgConnect^® our Evaluators have all the tools they need to implement the FARM Program at their fingertips.

AgConnect^® offers flexible data collection, aggregation and integration, as well as management and sharing tools that can be used to support a variety of needs – such as keeping track of on-farm practices. FARM’s custom version will meet the program’s growing need for data collection, and allow evaluators, cooperatives and industry associations to use the program with more ease and flexibility.

Our cooperative members and second-party evaluators had been asking for a mobile application and updated database with greater capabilities. AgConnect more than delivered on these requests, and we are excited to share this new technology with members of the program. New features of the mobile app include:

• FARM Evaluation will automatically save after each question is answered, regardless of whether or not the user has working cell service or internet connection. Forms will submit automatically once user is back in cellular service range or connected to internet;
• Supports tablets and phones on Apple and Android. Surface Tablet app coming later this year;
• Same login credentials as currently used for the FARM Program database;
• Automatically computes the minimal animal observations by animal type based on herd profile;
• Auto calculates observation score percentages and allows the option to manually answer observation related questions;
• Allows Evaluators to input photos and notes to review later;
• And more!

The Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases (IIAD), a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Center of Excellence, and the Texas Center for Applied Technology (TCAT), a research center within the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station worked together to create the program. IIAD and TCAT have a proven history in developing mobile applications using the AgConnect^® technology to support a variety of different animal health domains.

The application is available on both the Apple App Store^® and Google Play Store^®  by searching “Dairy FARM Mobile.” Only FARM Program certified evaluators/trainers have account credentials to utilize the app and submit evaluations. For questions or inquiries about the Dairy FARM Mobile app, please contact farm-help@tamu.edu.