I have no idea what my first app was. Maybe an email app for my Blackberry? What I do know is that apps have made my life a lot easier, more fun and in some cases hard to get away from.

In relative terms, apps didn’t start popping up for regular use until sometime in the mid-2000s. Then they were mostly email or messaging apps.

Today, apps are so ubiquitous it’s hard to separate them from modern life. Even my dad who won’t even try to master most aspects of his iPhone is addicted – maybe a strong word – to his favorite social media app.

The former farmer was slow to adapt to the app age, but I’m sure that given the plethora of farm centric apps available for irrigation, ag business and agronomics, he would have adapted to the technology, or at least in our operation, let me know it was something I needed to upload.

Before the days of apps, we incorporated many programs – farm management, weather models and moisture projections - into the farm computer. They have since migrated to the smart phone app.

Whitney Haigwood has featured some of these apps in her Delta Farm Press series on the subject. Growers in the Midsouth use these tools to streamline functions on their farms. If those apps disappeared today, man hours would increase and vital, usable data would be abandoned into the ether.

Regarding the data and apps on my phone, I wake up to an alarm app. The first thing I do is check out the weather app – will it be warm enough to forgo a coat on my morning walk with the dog? Then it’s a look at several news or social media apps. I start my podcast app when I go for my morning walk and then check each notification I get along the way.

And that is before I go to work and tap into any number of apps all day long.

I easily have over 100 apps on my smart phone. While that seems to be an extraordinary number, the ones I use are extremely useful. And the ones I don’t often use are – like that jar of miscellaneous screws I keep in the toolbox – kept around in case I might need to use one a couple of years from now.

Some of the most helpful single use apps are the ones that are built for special meetings – it’s almost a necessity for access to programs, schedules and directions. They are often updated each year as helpful features are developed.

The app for the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show is one of those. It’s more than helpful and it works hand in hand with the print program.

Download the farm and gin show app today at the app store for either Apple or Android.