3 ideas are worth a look.
For small farms, selling to small farm owners and farm managers. We explored 6 ideas and searched for each one. 3 already exist.
Already exists, so we dropped them
- Field Boundary MapperFree and cheap apps already trace field boundaries and give acreage, and John Deere Operations Center already stores field boundaries that other tools import. apps.apple.com
- Produce Box Order TakerSeveral farm CSA platforms already handle signups, recurring billing, box swaps, pickup scheduling and payments. localline.co
- Livestock Health NotebookMultiple livestock record apps already log health events, treatments and withdrawals for small farms. farmkeep.com
Shared Equipment Log
A shared log for farmers who lend and borrow equipment, tracking who has what, when it is due back, and any damage.
- Who pays
- Small farm owners and farm managers who share machinery with neighbours
- The problem
- Farmers share tools and machinery all the time, but the terms and the return date live in texts and paper. When something comes back damaged or late, there is no record and the relationship takes the hit.
- The gap
- The results show tool-share spreadsheets and a SARE toolkit for setting up sharing arrangements, but nothing that tracks a loan once it leaves the yard. The gap is the ongoing custody record: who has it, due date, condition on return.
- Already out there
- Future Harvest Tools Sharing & Rental futureharvest.org
A form plus a public spreadsheet that lists equipment available to share. It lists items, it does not track a loan after pickup.
- SARE equipment sharing toolkit projects.sare.org
Research and guidance on group ownership and sharing models. It is a document, not a tool farmers use day to day.
- Future Harvest Tools Sharing & Rental futureharvest.org
- People asking for it
- Borrowed Farm Equipment risks fumic.com
Explains that borrowing equipment is common and that damage, liability and coverage problems arise when nothing is written down.
- Borrowed Farm Equipment risks fumic.com
- The big assumption
- Farmers will actually open an app to log a loan instead of texting, and the lender cares enough to enforce it.
- Test it this week
- Ask ten farmers who share equipment to run one loan through a shared spreadsheet you set up, and see if they log the return without being reminded.
Compliance Paperwork Helper
A tool that guides small farms through the compliance paperwork they must file each year, with checklists and reminders.
- Who pays
- Small farm owners and farm managers
- The problem
- Small farms do not have a compliance officer. Deadlines and forms change, and the owner finds out about a filing when a notice or a fine arrives.
- The gap
- Farm management software mentions compliance reporting as one feature among many, and it is built for record keeping, not for telling a small farm which specific filings apply to them and when. The gap is jurisdiction specific deadline guidance for small farms.
- Already out there
- Farmbrite farmbrite.com
Farm management software with record keeping and reporting. It stores your records, it does not tell you which government filings you owe.
- FarmRaise farmraise.com
Software for farm programs and grants. It helps with program applications, not with recurring annual compliance deadlines.
- PcMars pcmars.com
Farm accounting software. Financial records only, no compliance calendar.
- Farmbrite farmbrite.com
- People asking for it
- r/smallfarms reddit.com
A community for commercial small holdings, where the day to day admin burden of running a small farm is discussed.
- Five reasons small farms fail reddit.com
Advises treating the farm like a business, which is exactly the admin work small farmers skip.
- r/smallfarms reddit.com
- The big assumption
- Compliance rules are local enough that a generic checklist is useless, and you cannot cover enough jurisdictions to be worth paying for.
- Test it this week
- Pick one state or country you know. Build the checklist by hand for ten small farms and charge a small fee for a reminder service before writing any software.
Farm Labor Task Board
A simple task board for farm managers to assign daily jobs to workers, with photo proof of completion.
- Who pays
- Farm managers on small farms
- The problem
- Daily jobs get assigned by whiteboard and phone calls. The manager cannot see what is done until they walk the whole farm, and workers get told twice or not at all.
- The gap
- FieldClock and Farmbrite cover time tracking and task assignment for larger crews. The gap is the very small crew: two to ten workers, no HR system, no time clock, just today's jobs and a photo when done.
- Already out there
- FieldClock fieldclock.com
Farm labor tracking app for time and productivity. Built around labor compliance and payroll data, heavier than a small farm needs.
- Farmbrite Teamwork farmbrite.com
Assign tasks and track progress in real time. It is one module inside a full farm management suite, so the buyer has to adopt the whole system.
- FieldClock fieldclock.com
- People asking for it
- Someone tell me to give it up reddit.com
Farmers discuss how owners and managers carry the load over hired hands, which is the coordination problem in the buyer's own words.
- Someone tell me to give it up reddit.com
- The big assumption
- Small farm workers will use a phone app in the field, and the manager will pay for it rather than keep the whiteboard.
- Test it this week
- Set up a shared task list with photo replies for one farm for two weeks and watch whether workers post photos without being chased.