By Connie Groop

Move over duct tape and baling wire. Some talented South Dakotans are using apps they created to fix some nagging problems on the farm.

For Ellen Schlechter, of Orient, S.D., the problem was calving records. Like most cattle producers, her family wrote down information in a calving book. But with many people checking cows, the book was hard to keep track of. More than one person needed to use the same book. Also, it was difficult to decipher notes written in a hurry, often when the weather was bad. And it took some time to find information in the book and get it into a form that could be used to make decisions about the cow herd.

Schlechter — who grew up with computers, smart phones and the internet — thought there had to be a better way to record calving information than using a pen and paper. While still a teenager, she taught herself how to create an app and in 2014 published "The Calving Book" app.

The app allows her family to use their smart phones to record calving, and check pregnancy information, weaning weights and dates, and other information that they used to keep in their calving books. Several people can enter data into the same account. The information stored in the cloud can be easily exported to an Excel spreadsheet. Rather than trying to decipher hurriedly scrawled entries, the app displays the information clearly and organizes it so that it can be used effectively.

The Calving Book app was an immediate hit with Schlechter's family. It also spread quickly online. As of October 2018, stockgrowers from U.S. and 25 other counties had created 10,000 accounts on the app.

"We changed our pricing schedule so the charge for an annual database fee is $14.99 instead of the one-time fee of $24.99," Schlechter says. "Because of the appeal, it pretty much markets itself. We get a lot of calls and emails so we know people use it."

Schlechter later developed "The Lambing App" and introduced it in February 2018.

Schlechter, now 20, and her cousin and business partner, Xavier Schlechter, manage the apps. Schlechter is a student at South Dakota State University. She is majoring in ag economics and business.

Check out the Calving Book online.

Herbicide app
For Morgan Holler, Pierpont, S.D., the problem was recording all the information that the state and federal government now requires to use many herbicides. He and his neighbor Brandon Alberts, who is a mechanical engineer, collaborated to create MyAgReport, a mobile app and a website that tracks information that needs to be compiled when applying herbicides. The app automatically pulls in critical data from the internet, such as wind speed and temperature, for the user’s location. It allows operators to quickly record herbicides and rates being used.

Using the app is a lot faster than trying to look up all of the information and writing it down manually, Holler says. Plus, the information is stored in the Cloud and can accessed and downloaded whenever it’s needed.

MyAgReport costs $49 a year.

One of the app’s users says he used to print 30 copies of a form to fill out while spraying.

"After he read about the app, he tried it," Holler says. "He said he did one field and threw the sheets away. He would never use paper and pen again."

It didn’t long for Holler and Alberts to bring their app to market.

"The idea went from my iPad in January, to fruition in March, to being on the market in May." Holler says.

"My biggest fear [in developing and selling an app] was that I’d be farming and have to deal with problems. That hasn’t happened. Many of those using it are in their 30s and my dad’s age, around 50. My dad made sure he could use it, which meant others could use it. If you can run the sprayer, you can run the app."

Holler and Alberts are developing planting, harvesting and field scouting apps, too

Check out the MyAgReport app online.

Groop write from Frederick, S.D.