Teen Entrepreneur Revolutionizes Farm Management with App
Ben O'Connor, a 16-year-old from County Down, has developed an app called FarmFlow to help farmers manage their tasks and paperwork, giving them more time with their families.
A 16-year-old from County Down has developed an app that he hopes will revolutionize how farms are run, giving hard-pressed farmers more time with their families.
Ben O'Connor was inspired to create FarmFlow when his family's farm near Castlewellan switched from beef to a dairy operation two years ago.
This change meant longer hours, strict routine, and more tasks to schedule, reducing the time his family had together.
O'Connor had previously developed a mail order gift business at the age of 13, which he sold last year.
He turned his talents to managing farm tasks and developed FarmFlow, which is now being trialled on several farms across the UK and Ireland.
The app targets the farm paperwork burden, aiming to give farmers more time with their families.
A Lonely Profession
O'Connor noticed the impact on his father and brother when the family made the switch from beef to dairy farming two years ago.
"It is a lot different - it's rigid - you start milking in the morning, you have to milk in the evening. There's not as much flexibility," he said.
Farmers in Northern Ireland work an average of 65 hours a week.
O'Connor said there was "a whole side of farming that the general public don't see", where farmers have late nights alone, completing jobs on the farm or filling in paperwork.
Pilot Farms Testing
Increasing efficiency is important to farmers like Jude McClements, whose family runs a 320-strong dairy herd, milking three times a day.
Tasks like keeping medical records up to date and making sure jobs like scraping out sheds are done can take a lot of time.
The app allows farmers like McClements to complete medicine records on the move and keep track of what tasks need to be done by whom around the farm.
McClements is a student at Ulster University in Coleraine and plans "to teach for a few years" after getting his degree.
Then he will return to the farm to run it with his brother.
He reached out to O'Connor as a fellow young farmer on social media, then jumped at the chance to be a tester farm for the app.
"Our Red Tractor (a food assurance scheme) inspection was coming up, so it was good to trial it, to see what was good about that, to give some feedback and suggestions," McClements said.
"Coming from a farm, Ben knew a lot of the features farmers want. You can tell that it's designed by a farmer for a farmer."
And it has helped him feel more connected to the farm that his brother, their father, and 90-year-old grandfather run while he is away at university.
"I feel like I'm in the loop and I'm not coming home at the weekends being like, well, what's happening? I can see what calves are sick, I can see what jobs have been done, what jobs need to be done," he said.
"It means that I'm not walking in here after not being here for five days and I know exactly what has and hasn't been done."
McClements believes technological developments will help farmers become more efficient and cost-effective when working on tight profit margins.
O'Connor has been nominated in the Northern Ireland start-up category of the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards.
And his success so far is a dream come true.
"It's definitely really exciting," O'Connor said.
