Using the Handheld Computer ........ Craig W. Yohn, WVU Extension Agent
Can the heldheld computer be used on the farm? Can Extension with
the help of agricultural producers develop tools that make this technology
practical on the farm? Finally once given the tools, can a group of producers
sustain themselves as a peer group that continue to learn and grow as
managers? That is the challenge put forth by this three year SARE Grant.
A young dairy couple trying to buy the family farm, create a pleasant
lifestyle that includes spending time with their children, pay their
bills, and provide for their future. They feel they don't have time
to collect production information and, if they did, they wouldn't have
the energy to analyze it. They don't know what it costs them to produce
their milk and they missed claiming their pre-paid expenses on their
income tax returns last year because they didn't have a total of current
expenses that they could trust. The father of the family during a recent
meeting said as his two-year old son crawled in his lap, "this is why
I am fighting to stay on the farm, my family can be together.
A woman managing one hundred beef cows and two hundred ewes wants
to keep individual information close at hand to help her track health
procedures, calving and lambing information, daily feed consumption,
and sale weights. She knows there is more to management than weights,
rates, and dates. She wants to journal her daily activities as she believes
that there is a narrative and descriptive aspect to record keeping that
enhances, clarifies, and explains what is found in the numbers and knows
that insight will give her an edge that will help her compete.
A fourth generation dairy farm couple just realizing that they must
diversify the operation to provide for their expanded family is experimenting
with vegetables and agri-tourism. They are grappling with comparing
enterprises.
Just three examples of how the use of a handheld to collect data as their
busy days progress can lead to the accumulation of information to make
better management decisions on the farm.
The goals of this three year grant are:
To develop groups of agricultural producers who can work together
to learn how to use and get the most from this new technology
Develop educational lessons that would be useful beyond this three
year grant and the intial participants in this grant and most importantly
I
Improve the ability of today's agricultural producer make informed
decisons about their enterprise.
