We listened to our customers' feedback. We agreed that there was a missing piece. How can a farm track hours for employees that start or finish tasks outside of normal business hours? How can a farm electronically record accurate check-in and check-out times for those workers performing activities far from the main office or facility? Now there is MobileClock.

Download MobileClock on any Android device. Enable MobileClock for one or multiple employees at your operation. Use either cellular or Wi-Fi to sync personal time clock information in real-time when FairTrak just isn’t enough. An beta version was released to a handful of customers for testing last month. So far so good!

It’s true. There are other mobile time clock apps available for download. We’ve spoken with customers using three different systems in order to accommodate all types of labor tracking activities and data collection in the field, packing house, and office. The benefits of our system? It can stand-alone or integrate with our other 2nd Sight hardware and software solutions so that you can track hours, pieces, containers, and weight. We are a one-stop shop, providing not only software, but hardware to keep up with the complex business of labor management on the farm, in the nursery, and in the greenhouse.

Looking for accurate labor costs and simple payroll for your operation? Add MobileClock to your 2nd Sight suite of data collection tools so you don’t lose a minute to outdated, incomplete, or complicated labor tracking systems.

A big thank you to our customers for another successful year! We’re happy to put another year in the books at 2nd Sight. If you can believe it, we’re gearing up for another busy 2019 season already.

In 2018, we released the FairPick Lite system to add even more data capture possibilities to weighing produce in the field. Internationally, we implemented our first FairTrak and FairPick Lite systems in Finland. We even created some buzz in the Netherlands with the release of the InstaCaliper electronic nursery caliper EU model.

Over the “off-season”, we have been busy reflecting on the successes of the year and implementing new software features. Every year, we gather feedback from our customers so that we can continue to meet the needs of the Ag industry. Our systems are designed for farmers, by farmer input. We continue to build our software to improve time-keeping, labor records, farm labor management, and provide the tools needed to effectively and efficiently track labor and product starting in the field.

A sneak-peak at new features you’ll see in 2019:

• Improved flexibility to handle batch actions in the field
• Enhanced employee section on the Portal
• GPS notes feature
• Improved break management including nonproductive, paid, and unpaid task types to ensure you have comprehensive break records.
• Release of a new labor tracking app available for download on personal Android devices. Keep up with all your workers no matter where they are or what time they start the job.
• Let 2nd Sight work with you to improve labor and data collection with software and hardware solutions that are flexible to fit your needs. You should know your operational costs and that begins with knowing your labor expenses. Utilize barcodes to improve your food safety traceability, as well.

Implementing a 2nd Sight system to improve tracking labor on the farm is another way you can move your operation forward in 2019. The 2nd Sight team looks forward to providing our current and new customers with our top-notch support that makes the difference as we're "Engineering Better Solutions for the Ag Industry."

There is doom and gloom surrounding predictions of the impacts of climate change on water supply, degradation of soil, pollination, weed control, and lower specialty crop yields. Continued uncertainty about trade relations may take a toll on exports. An inability to create a cohesive immigration policy to provide adequate, timely, and legal labor for seasonal jobs when our domestic workforce can’t, or won’t, fill the need…. There are without question factors working against the Ag Industry that seem almost too big to control or change quickly. So, what can a farmer do today to keep the operation going?

It’s time to embrace innovation. Companies see what Ag is up against and are out to develop hardware and software solutions. Labor management technologies utilizing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology, cloud-based mobile labor tracking apps, and payroll integration can greatly improve payroll accuracy which saves time and money. Scanning and data logging in the field allows for GPS traceability and a more streamlined process. Implementing electronic labor management cuts down work in the office and improves labor and yield records.

Labor management tools are nothing new. The good news: this technology is now adapted specifically for farms, orchards, and nurseries and they do not have to break the bank. There are solutions that exist that fit a budget of the 20- or 40-acre farm. This is important at a time when even the family farm needs to run like the thousand-acre operation.

It’s time to ask yourself, “How can my operation become more efficient?” But, can you even answer the question, “Where is the money and where are my farm’s resources going?” It’s time to explore solutions that will give you the data you need to analyze and review what your farm is doing right, where you can cut down on expenses (labor hours down to the block or row level), your workforce’s efficiency, and the direction you need to go to remain competitive in an uncertain Ag landscape.