Entering Water in Mobile App

Not everyone will have the budget to install water meters but still have a need to pull water information off the farm into the cloud and/or into their enterprise level software system.  In my previous blog I explained the way on farm water meters work and how a user might get a payback (beyond just the peace of mind that your animals are always getting water or that water is not spilling all over your barn).  Many of the same ideas can apply with entering water readings into the mobile app; but with far less real-time alerting or off-hours coverage.

The app has a water screen located here:

Once you select Water you open a screen that looks like this:

Select the barn you are inputting water data for.  

The times are not editable.  What you see is the current timestamp and the previous entry's timestamp.  

Enter the reading as you see it on the meter right in front of you.  The previous reading is shown on the screen for comparison purposes.  The water usage is calculated for you.

Select "Submit Water" and the gallons used for the previous period is submitted.  

Right now the total gallons with the current timestamp is what goes to the store.  This can cause bumps in the data when the data is not entered regularly at the same time.  A enhancement forthcoming soon in GroveStreams will allow us to submit an average gallons per minute rate (or per hour or whatever is easiest) and drop data in the store that is smoothed out for each unit of time between the previous timestamp and the current timestamp.  Although most enter water data daily, barn workers could enter the information at the beginning and end of the shift for more accurate time-series data.

Cons of the mobile app reporting water:

1.  Major leaks or other water-related issues that happen when no one is there will not be known until the barn worker arrives again the next day.

2.  If barn worker forgets to enter the data in a day or several days in a row the data can get bad quickly.  On that note, an administrator can set the maximum hours without a report as an escalated alert event.  For example, if 36 hours passes without the barn worker entering any water data their supervisor would get an email.

3.  Without a sensor you are relying on the barn worker to honestly report the information.  If a major leak occurred or animals go without water they may try and cover it up by falsifying the data entered.

Conclusion:

Most all livestock producers try and collect water records on a daily basis.  This is typically done with paper-based record keeping and maybe phoning or emailing the records in on a weekly basis.  Water meters connected to the cloud is the best way to monitor; but for budget-minded producers a mobile app can also be an effective way to collect water information remotely, analyze it and create alerts off the data.  If the goal is to get water data from a mobile app into your enterprise level system that can be accomplished also.  FarmStreams provides a simple water collection page in the app today with enhancements forthcoming that will make it even better.