An innovative phone app developed by the SWARM Knowledge Hub, a project run by the Rural Business School at Duchy College, has won a Soil Association Innovation Award.
The Farm Manure Management Application, informally called the “FarmCrapApp”, was voted for by the attendees at this year’s annual Soil Association conference.
Dr Stephen Roderick, project manager at Duchy College Rural Business School, said: “I am very proud of the team. What is really nice is that we have successfully used an innovative and humorous approach to getting serious messages sent about farm resource efficiency and reducing pollution.”
Following a brief presentation on the app, the 500 attendees then voted it the most pioneering idea in farming and growing across the UK in 2014.
The app, which has been created in collaboration with Rothamsted Research North Wyke, allows the farming community to appreciate the nutritive and economic value of livestock manures.
The app provides farmers with an opportunity to visually assess manure and slurry application rates and to calculate what is being provided in terms of available nutrients, as well as giving an estimate of potential savings in purchased artificial fertilisers.
