The world of agriculture just got more high tech. The Kansas Wheat Alliance (KWA) has released the Kansas Wheat Yield Calculator app for Android and Apple devices. The application lets producers collect information about their winter wheat fields and uses industry-standard formulas to give an assessment of potential yield prior to harvest.
The calculator uses the number of tillers on the plant, the row spacing and several other factors into account when crunching the numbers. The user can choose from three different formulas used by KWA, Kansas State University and crop insurance adjusters, or choose to have the products averaged. The app has the ability to analyze photos taken of the field on the producer’s phone and estimate the future yields.
“I think the calculator will be a comparative thing so that a farmer can use this tool over time and make management changes in between,” said Daryl Strouts, president of KWA. “If the farmer’s irrigating, maybe turn the water on, or if he needs a bit more fertilizer, he can do that. Then, he can go back and see later if the changes he made have made any difference.”
“What we set out to do when designing the app was to try to make it very intuitive,” said Ray Asebedo, a developer of the calculator. “We wanted it to not have a lot of screens on it and to be able to function without the users needing instructions.”
The Kansas Wheat Alliance and Kansas State University partnered on the development on this application. Ray Asebedo and Trevor Rife are the main developers on the app, along with consultation from Nan An. For more information on the app and links to download it, please visit kswheatalliance.org.