The teen entrepreneur transforming farm management
The app was designed to give farmers more time with their families by making the business more manageable.
A teenage entrepreneur from County Down has developed an app that he hopes will transform farm management, providing much-needed time back to busy farmers. This is Ben O'Connor's second business venture.
Sixteen-year-old Ben O'Connor was inspired to create the app after his family's farm near Castlewellan transitioned from beef to dairy operations. This change brought with it longer hours, a rigid schedule, and an increased number of tasks, all of which reduced the family's shared time.
O'Connor, who previously launched a mail-order gift business at age 13 and sold it last year, then focused his entrepreneurial talents on streamlining farm tasks. His new app, FarmFlow, is currently being piloted on several farms across the UK and Ireland. He aims to fully launch the app, which is designed to alleviate the burden of farm paperwork, while continuing his studies.
The app enables farmers to manage their business while on the go. O'Connor observed the significant impact on his father and brother when the family switched to dairy farming two years prior. He noted, "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 also became more aware of the extensive paperwork and compliance requirements involved in running a dairy farm.
Farmers in Northern Ireland typically work an average of 65 hours per week. O'Connor highlighted "a whole side of farming that the general public don't see," where farmers often spend late nights alone completing farm tasks or administrative duties. The app was developed with the goal of making farm businesses more manageable, thereby allowing farmers more time with their families.
To coincide with the app's launch, an "Empty Table" campaign has been initiated to raise awareness about the significant effort involved in food production. "I love to solve problems," O'Connor stated. "So I wanted to set up FarmFlow to sort of solve problems on our own farm and try and make it more efficient. I love keeping things on time and stuff."
Ben recently received positive news with his GCSE results from Lecale Trinity Grammar in Downpatrick, achieving two A*s, five As, and two Bs. He plans to continue his education, with a long-term ambition to work in agriculture and leverage technology to enhance industry practices.
"I think agriculture is such a traditional industry, it needs change and as more young farmers come into it, the industry will start to change," O'Connor remarked. "So I could see, whether it be more robotics and automation or more apps coming out, I think it will definitely be different and more efficient, hopefully."
Increasing efficiency is crucial for farmers like Jude McClements, whose family manages a 320-strong dairy herd, milking three times daily. Tasks such as maintaining up-to-date medical records and ensuring chores like scraping out sheds are completed can be very time-consuming. The app allows farmers like McClements to update medicine records on the go and track who needs to complete which tasks around the farm.
McClements, a student at Ulster University in Coleraine, intends to "teach for a few years" after earning his degree before returning to the farm to run it with his brother. He connected with O'Connor, a fellow young farmer, on social media and eagerly volunteered 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 explained. "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."
The app has also helped McClements feel more connected to the farm, which is managed by his brother, father, and 90-year-old grandfather 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?" he said. "I can see what calves are sick, I can see what jobs have been done, what jobs need to be done. 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 that technological advancements will enable farmers to become more efficient and cost-effective, especially when operating on tight profit margins. This is precisely what O'Connor aims to achieve during the app's initial testing phase before its full launch.
O'Connor has been nominated in the Northern Ireland start-up category of the Allica Bank Great British Entrepreneur Awards. His success to date is a dream come true. "It's definitely really exciting," O'Connor concluded.