A teenager from County Down hopes an app he has developed will revolutionise how farms are run, giving hard-pressed farmers more time. Ben O'Connor, 16, was inspired when his family's farm near Castlewellan moved from beef to a dairy operation. That meant longer hours, strict routine and more tasks to schedule, all of which reduced the time his family had together.
The entrepreneur had previously developed a mail order gift business at the age of 13. After selling that last year, he turned his talents to managing farm tasks. FarmFlow is now being trialled on several farms across the UK and Ireland.
He hopes to roll out the app, which targets the farm paperwork burden, alongside his studies. O'Connor noticed the impact on his father and brother when the family made the switch from beef to dairy farming two years ago. "It is a lot different - it's rigid - you start milking in the morning, you have to milk in the evening.
There's not as much flexibility," he said. He also became more conscious of the paperwork and level of compliance involved in running a dairy operation. Farmers in Northern Ireland work an average of 65 hours a week.
O'Connor said there was "a whole side of farming that the general public don't see", where farmers have late nights alone, completing jobs on the farm or filling in paperwork. The app was developed with the idea of giving farmers more time with their families by making the business more manageable. A campaign - the Empty Table - has been launched with the app to raise awareness of the effort that goes into producing food.
"I love to solve problems," O'Connor said. "So I wanted to set up FarmFlow to sort of solve problems on our own farm and try and make it more efficient. "I love keeping things on time and stuff." After getting two A*, five As and two Bs in his GCSEs, he is going to continue his education.
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