SALEM, Ohio — A new smartphone and tablet application called Farm Service Manager helps record service and maintenance history for farm equipment and vehicles.
Farm Service Manager is the idea of Australian farmer David Ricardo. Along with his brother, Peter, David farms more than 22,000 acres in northern New South Wales, growing wheat, chickpeas, faba beans, canola, barley and dryland cotton under a zero-till, controlled-traffic system.
He came up with the idea after years of keeping notebooks and logbooks full of service records for his machinery.
“We used to keep a service logbook in a central position on the farm, but two years ago that book went missing temporarily,” Ricardo said. “During that time, we missed services which weren’t followed up.”
“I thought if we have an app which is an electronic version of a notebook or service logbook then the same records can be accessed by everyone for each piece of machinery,” he said.
The multi-user app logs services and other maintenance for farm plant, equipment and vehicles. It can be used for all machinery, from tractors and harvesters through to planters, cars, trucks and small motors.
Farm Service Manager can also log different types of service to each machine, whether that be a full service by the local mechanic or just a quick fix by the farmer, contractor or their employee. Once the service or maintenance job has been completed and logged in the app, the farmer receives a detailed account of what type of work has been conducted, the parts used and how many hours or miles were on the machine at the time.
The app has different levels of access. The farm owner or contractor can invite and manage operators, add and delete machinery, share service records and export a full PDF service history of each machine, piece of equipment or vehicle.
When it comes time to sell machinery, the owner is able to provide a comprehensive service history based on what has been logged in the app.
Farm Service Manager is available now on the App Store or Google Play.
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