Farmers and agents can now get live saleyard and processor prices on their smartphones.
Live schedule prices from most major meat processors are now available on an innovative new web app for smartphones.
Similar price data is available on the app for most major saleyards.
This allows both farmers and their agents transparent and up-to-date access to market prices. It will ensure every farmer gets a fair comparative understanding of where the market is before they sell or buy, and get a fairer crack at getting the "right price".
This smartphone service is available only at www.interest.co.nz/livestock
It uses the same live data displayed on the full website www.interest.co.nz/rural but in a convenient manner when farmers and agents are in the field and away from a pc.
Data for this service is updated as soon as it is available from processors and saleyards.
"Important pricing decisions are being made by many rural people with out-of-date and often selective data at present" said publisher of the service, David Chaston. "We have seen too many cases where farmers got under-market returns just because they don't have access to live and comprehensive data. This new service will make it easier to ensure everyone negotiates with the best knowledge on prices available."
"We know that not everyone has good enough mobile broadband access for smartphone use, but coverage is slowly improving and resources such as this will become normal for many. Those that can't get smartphone access can still use normal pc based web access" he said.
Coverage is national and includes beef, sheep, and deer, with comprehensive screens for bulls, calves, heifers, steers, and cows (both dairy and M), stags and hinds, lamb, ewes, mutton. Prices are from most major processors, key local trade buyers, and many saleyards.
Some processors still operate in a selective and secretive way with their schedule pricing. However interest.co.nz hopes farmers themselves will contribute the bits of market knowledge they have to help fill in the few missing pieces. That way we can help ensure that most of the end-market returns flow back to the product producers as fairly as possible. Relevant market data can be emailed to updates@interest.co.nz
Chaston said he expected there to be hesitant acceptace by a few processors of such transparency, but that in the end processors will realise it is to their advantage, and that the best outcomes for everyone come when the competition for animals is based on quality rather than price.
8 Comments
/livestock is a web app and will only work on a smartphone.
It is live now.
On all normal-sized screens it will redirect to our data pages at interest.co.nz/rural (follow the links in the sidebar). The reason for the redirect is that the screens for the web app are specifically designed for a smartphone and look distorted and 'wrong' on the much bigger screens of a pc or tablet.
We would love your 'hundreds of farmer clients' to use it, so if you want to give us feedback from them, please feel free to email me at david.chaston@interest.co.nz
It is a web app, rather than a traditional app.
You can access it via the web browser on your smartphone - any smartphone including iPhone, Androids, Windows, etc.
Just type in www.interest.co.nz/livestock
Its not a locked-down iPhone app (because we would then need to charge for using it due to the development cost, and then make a separate android app). We made it browser-friendly and can bring it to you free (!)
It only works on smartphones. In tablets (iPad) and pcs (computers) you will be redirected to our normal databases - which incidentally are even more comprehensive. Thousands use that service, but really, many more should. The data there will save/make you thousands.
Well done David. Very useful addition to my smartphone (not an iphone :-) )
I was unaware of the livestock sales on your main web page - never really looked to be honest. But I 'found' it one day and have referred some of the young farmers I know to it and they love it!
Not all have smartphones but those that do, I will pass the message on. :-)
The technology is almost everywhere and even those thinking to have this one so hard, is no longer impossible. Modern technology is now working with growers and agricultural project in general. Thankfully, for this app that it made it possible modern living for those in remote areas.
Thanks.
Karlo of "http://www.kekacase.com/designer-cases/julie-hamilton.html, an ipad case company"
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