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The relationship between farming and technology has changed enormously over the past century. Farming has progressed from manual tools and animal-powered equipment to tractors, computers, GPS, smartphones and specialised agricultural apps.

For our family, that change isn’t just something we’ve read about. We have watched computers become part of everyday farming life in Far North Queensland, from teaching farmers how to use early accounting software to developing a mobile app designed for cattle buyers at livestock auctions.

How Technology Changed Farming

For thousands of years, farming depended heavily on manual labour and relatively simple tools. The development of the plough and the use of animals to pull agricultural equipment allowed farmers to cultivate larger areas more efficiently.

The Industrial Revolution accelerated this change. Machinery such as seed drills and mechanical reapers reduced the amount of manual work required, while tractors transformed agriculture during the 20th century.

Later developments included improved irrigation, fertilisers, crop science and increasingly sophisticated farm machinery.

Computers Arrive on the Farm

By the late 20th century, another major change was beginning: computers were finding their way into rural businesses.

Our family’s experience with this began on the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland.

We moved to Atherton from Papua New Guinea in 1981 and operated our own advisory consultancy. To help grow the business, we invested in one of the first personal computers in our locality—a Wang computer that we learned to use for word processing, spreadsheets and databases.

A little later, we moved to IBM computers as personal computing became increasingly accessible.

Teaching Farmers to Use Computers

One of the early practical uses of computers in farming was bookkeeping.

With support from the Department of Primary Industries, I taught groups of farmers how to use Quicken for computerised accounting. The introduction of GST in Australia in 2000 gave computerised bookkeeping an additional push, and I taught courses showing people how to calculate GST and prepare monthly or quarterly GST returns.

I also worked on the FarmBiz scheme, a government initiative that encouraged the farming community to adopt computers and provided subsidised training.

Projects included computerised accounting, spreadsheets and databases for herd record keeping.

The work took me to farms throughout the area, including dairy and beef properties as well as avocado, maize and sugar farms. The hospitality was wonderful—and quite often included plenty of local produce to take home.

From Farm Computers to Smart Farming

Technology on farms has moved far beyond bookkeeping and spreadsheets.

GPS-guided machinery, satellite imagery, weather information, electronic livestock identification, sensors, drones and mobile devices can now provide farmers with information while they are actually working in the paddock, yards or saleyards.

The smartphone has been particularly significant because specialised tools no longer need to remain on a computer in the farm office. They can be carried in a pocket and used where the work is actually happening.

How a Farmer Inspired Our Livestock Auction App

The next chapter in our own story of farming and technology came through my daughter, Catherine.

After studying computing at James Cook University in Townsville, she established a computer sales and repair business in Atherton and later began developing mobile apps.

One of those apps came directly from a practical problem raised by a local farmer.

He asked whether she could create an app that would allow him to quickly calculate cattle prices while they were being sold at auction and keep a running total of what he had spent.

That request eventually became the Livestock Auction Calculator.

The app is designed for use at cattle and livestock auctions, allowing buyers to calculate prices using different weights and pricing methods while keeping track of purchases during the sale. It is now available for iPhone, iPad and Android.

Farming and Technology Today

When our family first began working with computers on the Atherton Tablelands, using a computer for farm bookkeeping was itself a significant technological change.

Today, carrying specialised agricultural software on a phone seems completely normal.

Yet the purpose of the technology hasn’t really changed. Whether it is a spreadsheet, accounting program, GPS system or livestock auction app, the most useful farming technology solves a real problem and makes a job easier to do.

More than 20 years after I travelled to farms helping people use computers, Catherine now travels to farms through her computer work and receives much the same warm rural hospitality that I did.

For our family, farming and computers have come full circle—and technology has become a permanent part of modern agriculture.

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