Here’s a new app for your phone. The Hoosier Ag Today app was just announced. I’ve got it on my HTC Thunderbolt.
This free application provides farmers with up-to-the-minute market prices, time-sensitive news, and an exclusive Indiana agricultural weather forecast. But what makes the HAT app unique is that farmers can listen to exclusive audio content on their wireless devices. “This is in-depth information that is too long for today’s commercial radio formats but the kind of detail that today’s farmers crave,” said Gary Truitt, president of Hoosier Ag Today. The HAT app is currently available on the Android platform with an iPhone version ready for release in a few weeks.
The app was developed in collaboration with LoadOut Technologies at the Purdue University Research Park. A development team with experience in app creation and agriculture worked to create an application that meets the unique informational needs of the agricultural industry. This is a prototype of an app that will be developed for other farm media organizations across the Midwest. The app takes advantage of the time-sensitive and localized information that statewide farm broadcast organizations can provide, while delivery that information directly to farmers while they are in the field or on the go.
Research by the National Association of Farm Broadcasting shows that farmer adoption of wireless technology is growing faster than any other form of communication. The research shows that farmers are using this wireless technology for receiving time-sensitive agricultural information like markets, news, and weather. A recent survey by Successful Farming indicated that farmers are adopting mobile phone technology faster than the general public. Ninety-four percent of US farmers own a mobile phone or smartphone, 11% higher than the general public. With wireless coverage expanding rapidly across rural America, farmers can now get high speed coverage almost everywhere they go. The rapid expansion of 4G technology in Indiana means most rural areas will have high speed coverage in the near future.
“We have developed the app so that it provides a new way for advertisers to reach farmers while they are farming, but not to let those messages get in the way of the information growers want,” Truitt said. “The app will not only track the number of downloads, but we will be able to provide other important behavioral data like time spent viewing, number of impressions, and number of returning visitors.” The app provides marketers the ability to use both text and audio messages within the same app. A special “exclusive” section provides for product discounts or event promotions that will only be seen by app users.