AgSquared took part in the NOFA-NY conference this past weekend!

We had such an awesome time at NOFA-NY. Everything, from the talks to the food - and especially the people - was fantastic. We met many wonderful farmers whose farm businesses represent a diverse set of operations types, farm sizes and crops. All had one hugely important thing in common: they are all seriously committed to their land and sustainability. For us here at AgSquared, we felt like we fit right in and were among family! 

We were also very fortunate to have a forum and some time to speak with many farmers one-on-one for in-depth conversations about their farm record keeping practices and management tasks. It was great to hear your thoughts, comments, and concerns about AgSquared’s software and our upcoming beta test. Thanks to all of you who joined in for our group discussion about AgSquared on Saturday afternoon, and thanks again to the organizers of NOFA-NY for making a conference room and time slot available to us for our meeting. 

Many thoughtful questions about computerizing farm records were asked and a number of interesting points were raised. One of the more frequent questions we were asked is, “Is everyone going to be able to get a beta test account and when?” We are using a beta test server with limited capacity which keeps our initial development costs low, so that we can keep AgSquared free! We will therefore be limited in the number of beta accounts that we can offer when we begin to test our software later this winter. As we grow, pick up momentum and build server capacity, we will be able to offer you beta test accounts at some point during the 2010 growing season. 

Another important question that was asked was, “Does your software support livestock and poultry operations?”  The answer to that question is, “Not yet, but we will soon!” If you would like to become an AgSquared beta tester to try out our future poultry- and livestock-specific features, sign up now, and when invited into the beta test, set up your farm’s account. There will be a place where you can specify what crops you grow and which animals you raise. As we build livestock- and poultry-specific functionality into the AgSquared software package, we’ll make sure to include you among the first who are invited to beta test these new features. 

We hope to have answered many of your questions at our meeting and in this blog post. If you have any thoughts, comments, or concerns, please contact us and send them our way!

All the best for a healthy and productive 2010 growing season, from your friends at AgSquared.