New app developed for the farming sector


Aberystwyth University has developed its first commercial app for the farm sector which will be officially launched at the Royal Welsh Show on Tuesday 24 July. 
The guest speaker at the event will be Dr Christianne Glossop, Chief Veterinary Officer to the Welsh Government.
The farmGRAZE app, based on the expertise of a team from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), will help farmers to manage livestock grazing more efficiently and save money on feed and fertiliser.
This android app will allow farmers to calculate the grazing available to their livestock in a particular field and across their holding.
Dr Rhian Hayward from Commercialisation and Consultancy Services at the University, explains, “This app is the result of an apps challenge we held for staff and students last year to transform research based ideas into mobile app concepts.
“As a university, we are in a strong position to realise the commercial value in our technologies and expertise. Transferring research into commercial products and services is of importance to us and I’m sure we will see many more apps developed in the future.”
There are two versions of the app available for farmers - a free version and a paid version. The free version will help farmers make better management decisions, improve their grazing swards and offer tips on grassland management.
The paid (£5.99) version goes that extra step further and will save grass measurement data, plot grass wedge information graphically, export information to your e-mail in spreadsheet format and set reminders to check grass height in a person’s phone calendar.
farmGRAZE has been developed in partnership with Arkuris Ltd and software developer CEMAS. More information can be found on the website: www.mobilefarmapps.com

The launch event will take place at Aberystwyth University’s Education Pavilion on the show ground on Tuesday 24 July from 9-11am. The University will introduce the audience to mobileFARM, farmGRAZE and horseRATION, followed with an address by Dr Glossop and refreshments. mobileFARM will also feature on S4C’s popular agriculture programme, Ffermio, on Monday 30 July at 8.25pm.

mobileFARM background
In March 2011, Aberystwyth University won a Fast Forward award worth £30,000 from the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) for a project about ‘effective use of copyright and trade marks’.
The money was awarded to encourage innovative approaches to knowledge transfer from university research to real world products and services.
From April-July 2011, Aberystwyth University ran a ‘mobile apps challenge 2011’ competition for staff and students to enter their research based ideas and achievements as mobile app concepts.
There were three winning entries. Two of them were from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), with the other from the Department of Computer Science.
The mobileFARM brand has been established to market two apps that were originally identified as winners of the mobile apps challenge (the two IBERS entries).
mobileFARM aims to support farmers and animal owners locally and globally to work efficiently to save money and to provide guidance on best practice. The mobileFARM apps include farmGRAZE and horseRATION
horseRATION is an iPhone app that will offer a quick, independent and accurate recommendation for a horse’s diet. It will be launched later on in the year. 

About IBERS
The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS), Aberystwyth University, was established in April 2008 following the merger of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, formerly part of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with Aberystwyth University. IBERS continues to receive strategic funding for research from the BBSRC and benefits from financial support from the Welsh Government, DEFRA and the European Union.
Around 350 research, teaching and support staff conduct basic, strategic and applied research in biology from the level of genes and other molecules to the impact of climate change and bio-energy on sustainable agriculture and land use.

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