Wyangala Merino producer, Marian McGann said two years ago she had never used a mobile app.
"I thought I was very clever just using messages, that and phone calls were the extent of my whole mobile phone experience," Ms McGann said.
But now she is an app developer, having created stock record keeping app, My Pocket Mate - Stock Keeper.
"I'm 62 and over the last two years I've just smashed everyone's perceptions that people my age don't like change," she said.
Ms McGann is one of 12 successful applicants to take part in the inaugural Farmers2Founders Ideas Program.
The Farmers2Founders Ideas Program helps producers become entrepreneurs by giving them the tools and skills to turn their ideas into businesses.
Co-founder Sarah Nolet said after working in the ag tech space both in Australia and the US, she realised new ag products and technology needed to come from within the industry.
"I saw that a lot of the technology was being developed and was pushed into the ag sector," Ms Nolet said.
"There was too much focus on the technology and widget and not enough on the problem it could solve, the customer and the work flow.
"We wanted to flip that model and make sure more companies and products are built to solve real problems."
Along with the eight-week Ideas Programs, Farmers2Founders will run 15, free workshops across regional Australia and an intensive business Bootcamp.
Most of the participants in the program are producers who like Ms McGann came up with a solution for a problem they were experiencing firsthand.
"We had quite a few sheep stolen nearly 10 years ago now," Ms McGann said.
"When the police were brought in we had to substantiate our numbers so they could establish how many were stolen.
"This meant we had to go through our pocket notebooks which were pretty random, sometimes you'd forget to put a date on a number, then you had to go through the national vendor book, the shearing tally books and so on."
Ms McGann said she thought there must be a better way to keep accurate stock records.
"I stewed over it and came up with the mobile app," she said.
"I started writing out the key features I would like as a producer.
"I had looked online at some of the apps that were available, but they all seemed to be too complicated to use, included features we didn't need and were structured around a specific type of farmer which didn't suit our farming operation."
She said all she wanted was a simple recording system that displayed information like an account transaction.
"Something with a date and time stamp on it, that told you specifically what sort of sheep they were, what paddock they were in and what was the operation that we were doing," Ms McGann said.
Ms McGann said once she had come up with the idea, she faced a major issue. How was she going to create this app?
With help from the NSW government's Business Connect, legal advice (Baker Deane & Nutt and Killen & Associates) and family-owned Australian app designer, Appiwork she said the concept came into a reality.
"Feedback's pretty good. It costs $55 a year, and we now have 60 users across four states," Marian said.
"It hasn't got all the sexy things that other apps have, it's not colorful, it doesn't have graphics in it, it's just a replacement to the pocket book, you now just have it on your mobile phone."
The app's next step is being worked out with the help of the Farmers2Founders Ideas Program.
"It's absolutely amazing," Ms McGann said.
"I have a background as an accountant, managing $35 million budgets, but I was absolutely appalled at how bad some of my business skills were.
"They just get you focused, in one day I was thinking of things on a business scale, which I had never considered before."
- Farmers2Founders are holding its first free workshop in NSW on Tuesday 23rd in Wagga Wagga. The program is backed by AgriFutures Australia, Australian Wool Innovation, Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat & Livestock Australia, and Wine Australia.
