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  • From: Deb Taft <growbd AT aol.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] AgSquared Farm Planning Software
  • Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 15:22:22 -0500 (EST)


Hi Alison, Bill and All.

I contacted Giulia at Agsquared about the issues Bill raised and wanted to deliver her response:

___

As for the big question - how is AgSquared going to keep this free? If you would like, you can let the list know that we are fully committed to keeping all of the agronomy management features that you see in the demo video free without limiting farmers' use of AgSquared to only farms of a certain size or with a certain number of staff or enterprises. We are currently working on partnerships with companies and organizations that will help us support the software and our team. In the future, we may work on peripheral add-ons to the core platform that can help farmers with the management of other aspects of their farms' operations, such as financial management features and a smart phone app that will allow users to access AgSquared from the field. We will likely charge for these features, but again they will not impact the free farm planning and management platform that we've built. 

As for the add-on features that Bill is referring to, you're right, many of them are going to be available in AgSquared by the end of this winter's release. For example, AgSquared will allow you to manage your greenhouse planting schedule, and you will be able to use AgSquared to keep track of everything that you do in the greenhouse as well as keep a running history of temperature and humidity set points etc.

I'm not entirely sure about what he means by add-ons for marketing and pest management, but in time, we do envision expanding AgSquared to cover aspects of these problems well. 
________

Hope that clarifies some.

Alison, she also said that they would be thrilled if you mentioned them at SSAWG.  I'll bet they would be happy to have you use the demo video in your presentation if you want.  Their contact info is on the website.

Best,
Deb




-----Original Message-----
From: Wiediger, Alison <alison.wiediger AT hart.kyschools.us>
To: 'Market Farming' <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wed, Dec 22, 2010 6:30 am
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] AgSquared Farm Planning Software

I also ran the demo and was very impressed. I started my IT career as an applications programmer, and have farmed all that time as well.  It looks very professional, and as a farmer, pretty complete.  I’d love to see a mobile app as well, which it sounds as though is on the drawing board. Smart phones, iPod Touches, iPads and other slates, will become more and more important tools.
 
At the SSAWG conference in Chattanooga, in January, I am presenting at a session on record keeping.  I have planned to show my “luddite” method for accounting, and my semi-automated spreadsheet for planning and planting.  I think I will at least tell folks about AgSquared as well.  Its only drawback, which is also one of its strengths, is that when the internet is down (not unlikely in rural areas), unless you have printed copies, your plans are inaccessible, but being “in the cloud” is also so much less expensive. Many businesses are turning to web-based applications for much of their business software.
 
All in all, well done, and I am looking forward to trying it out.
 
Alison Wiediger, Au Naturel Farm
 
From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of William H Shoemaker
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 10:02 AM
To: 'Market Farming'
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] AgSquared Farm Planning Software
 
Thanks for sharing this news Deb. I visited their site and ran the demo. I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it looked well organized and user friendly. It looks like it could be a powerful tool for market farming. I looked at the profiles of the developers too. They seem sincerely interested in developing this product for this industry for altruistic reasons. I suspect that the initial product may become a platform for other features that could be added on, like marketing, pest management, greenhouse operations, etc. They may be setting it up as for-pay later, but it certainly has value, so that may not be limiting. I’d recommend anyone on this list give it a look.
 
Bill
William H. Shoemaker
Sr. Research Specialist, Food Crops
University of Illinois - Crop Sciences
St Charles Horticulture Research Center
535 Randall Road, St Charles, IL, 60174
630-584-7254, FAX-584-4610

From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Deb Taft
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 9:08 AM
To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Market-farming] AgSquared Farm Planning Software
 

Hi All.
 
I've been eagerly waiting for the opportunity to talk about this new web-based farm planning software.  I saw a demo at the NOFA Summer conference and have been pestering the developers since.  They've just publicly announced an early winter release and updated their website yesterday.
 
There's a short demo video here:
 
 
The video doesn't begin to show how cool this is going to be!  They've spent tons of time talking to farmers about what they want and need and have been very receptive to my questions and suggestions since August.
 
I don't know of any other software that does everything AgSquared will do.  It's what I would design if I knew anything about designing software!  It beats the hell out of my motley collection of Excel spreadsheets.
 
oh...and it's FREE.
 
Take a look at the demo video and the FAQs.  
 
Warmly,
Deb
Mobius Fields 
Westchester County, NY
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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