MyFarms well ahead of curve

Two years later after its inception, MyFarms 2.0 has arrived.
The web application has been rewritten and improved, the number of contract clients has grown, the business opened a storefront in Portland and staff members are coding away on a daily basis.
Owner Chris Fennig thinks things are going pretty well for his business, which was first pitched in 2010.
“Last year we had one client,” Fennig said. “We now have six clients, so our relationships are growing quickly. Those partners are now introducing us to their colleagues and that’s why we’re so focused on quality and excellence in our software.
“We have access to thousands of farmers that are already in relationship with the seed company where there is already trust,” he said.
MyFarms started with the idea that farmers could benefit from a way to better manage data about their land, their seeds and their farming practices. And the web application has created a place where growers are able to store information about their fields and share that with seed companies or other consultants to be able to create a more precise farming plan.
“What we’re doing is bringing all that data together, basically everything a farmer knows about his fields, combined with everything a seed company knows about their hybrid to find the best hybrid for each field,” Fennig said. “There’s a lot of value in getting that answer right. If you can get the right seed on the right acre at the right rate, you’re looking at somewhere between a 3 and 7 percent improvement in yield which translates into some serious dollars.”
“The current situation is flawed, it’s broken,” Fennig said. “Farmers give electronic copies of data to these partners and they’re given back a piece of paper. What it’s doing is creating isolated islands of data that don’t interact.
“(With MyFarms) they can then return electronic copies … Now you’ve got long term access and control of that data,” he said. “Now what my soils consultant is learning about my fields … I can share it with my seeds dealer.”
It’s a logical step as technological input in farming increases and one that Fennig takes pride in stating that MyFarms is ahead of the curve.
He references an article in the summer edition of Farm Journal that opens with information about global seed powerhouse Monsanto developing a technology and data-driven Integrated Farming System.
The back-end of the article talks about the connection between MyFarms and Burrus Hybrids, the first seed dealer to sign on with the Portland company.
“The big difference is they’re coming out in 2014 and we’re in production now,” Fennig said. “So we’re about two years ahead of Monsanto. It’s exactly what we want. A major $12 billion global company is spending a lot of money taking the lead, and here we are with a small regional seed company ahead of them by two years to serve farmers.”
The MyFarms application allows farmers to set boundaries on their fields and then fill in some additional information about the land and their planting goals and concerns before spitting out the top four hybrids best-suited to that land.
With the addition of new clients, MyFarms has been growing locally. The company opened its storefront on East Main Street in Portland during the summer and its team of developers have been working to roll out the second version of the MyFarms application already this month.
“The team we’ve assembled is second-to-none in this industry,” Fennig said. “These are top notch people that are fully dedicated to excellence and quality. We’ve had weekends where we’re working nonstop.”
Continuing development has been driven by the group’s clients. As they request new features, new contracts are formed. And the second version of the application will even allow MyFarms to create specialized interfaces for specific clients without affecting the overall function of the product.
And on top of all that, MyFarms 2.0 is a significant upgrade from the original app.
“We’ve rewritten the entire software stack from top to bottom,” Fennig said. “It’s much faster. It’s about twice as fast as the old application. … It’s more maintainable. It brings more efficiency to the development process so we can build more functionality with relatively few developers.”
Fennig described the company’s growth as measured and deliberate, one that’s been driven by feedback from its users.
“Once we achieved success in that first project, without fail, without exception, it has led to additional work so that now, with our partners we’re in our second, third or fourth contracts,” Fennig said. “That’s a mark of a very healthy way of engaging with any company. We love having our development being driven directly by strategic partners.
“You’re not guessing at what the market needs,” he said. “You’re listening intently to what people are saying and then defining the scope of the work and providing a price for that work …
“It’s a great way to build a piece of software.”
Fennig, however, looked back to the initial support the company received from the City of Portland and Jay County Council to help start up MyFarms. In 2010, both governments pledged $75,000 in Economic Development Income Tax funds over three years, and both approved the final $25,000 disbursements earlier this month.
“We couldn’t have done it without the city and the county getting behind us,” Fennig said.
“That support was invaluable and it continues to be.
“With it being a Thanksgiving edition, it would be very fair to say we’re very thankful to the community for its role in the development.”

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