By Julie Murphree, Arizona Farm Bureau: One of Arizona Agriculture's Own Creates an App for the Livestock Industry, specifically swine producers.

Derived from the words “gestation” and “date” and launched this week, a new smartphone app for iPhone (iOS), called GESDATE, is designed to help swine producers more effectively manage their herds by digitally tracking breeding, gestation, farrowing dates, litters, vaccinations, and more. And what’s more, GESDATE was created and developed by one of Arizona Agriculture’s own farm kids.

The GESDATE app is designed to help swine producers more effectively manage their herds.

It appears to cover all aspects of swine herd management. From conception to sale or harvest day, GESDATE moves swine operations to a new tier of herd organization and management, giving producers real-time access to farm data, and introduces a remarkable farm staff collaboration tool.

All of these features lead to time and money savings, according to GESDATE co-founder Jeff Maynard, who was raised on a farm and has been active as a breeder, 4-H and FFA leader, judge and showman in the swine industry for more than 30 years.

"This new smart phone app will replace spiral notebooks, white boards and antiquated software that is prevalent for recordkeeping in the industry," says Maynard. "We believe our tool will help producers work smarter by allowing GESDATE to do the work."

Maynard partnered with technology experts and experienced app creators to develop GESDATE and the FarmSync technology included in the app. “This allows a user to share information on herds of all sizes with anyone on the farm given access,” Maynard says. “It’s taking your computer recordkeeping to the barn, truck or field — only better,” he says.

Better, insists Maynard, because GESDATE has the ability to store farm and herd data in the cloud, making management information instantly live and updated across the board.

Even if a user is away from Wi-Fi or cellular service, the app can be used seamlessly, with the FarmSync technology which allows offline use.

“When the farmer, herdsman or other user reaches Wi-Fi, the app will automatically sync and data will be available for viewing by farm management or the entire team.

“This is a real game changer for the industry and we are excited about the launch. We encourage people in the swine industry to download GESDATE and give it a try.” GESDATE is now available on the iTunes App Store.

Main GESDATE Features

  • Gestation calculator. Plug in the breeding date and GESDATE will do the rest
  • Track farrowing dates, heat cycles and vaccinations
  • Group swine herd by: bred, farrowed and open
  • Sow tracking: past litters, vaccinations, heat cycles and notes
  • Pig tracking: health/vaccinations, buyer info, price, show stats and pictures

What GESDATE Does

  • Allows user to share and sync data with herdsman, with family or the entire farm
  • Manage, store, share, and back up critical information about the herd
  • Track and view breeding details of heat dates, lineage, medical care, and other critical day-to-day data

Several in the industry including purebred, show, seedstock, heritage and commercial producers, will be interested in trying the new app. For additional information the product website is www.gesdate.com. It’s compatible with the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and will eventually be available for Android phones.

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