Technology Helps Millennial Farmer Find Work-Life Balance
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Farming has always been a demanding profession, with long hours and endless responsibilities. But advances in technology are giving farmers new ways to stay connected to their operations while stepping away from the field. Nebraska farmer Quentin Coneally says these new tools can help create more flexibility between balancing farm responsibilities and time at home.
Coneally… “ That's why it's hard to put an ROI to it. That's the hard part. It's more of a feeling and more of a family time. Us millennials, we're a little bit more family oriented. We love to take care of our family and we have to be here, share responsibilities and stuff. It's taken a big responsibility off me. I mean, just simple stuff like Operation Center. I can watch a tractor run across the county or what it's doing, how it's working on time. Even coming down to watching irrigation. I don't have to run out there and start pivots every night. I can start some from my phone. They're not all set up like that because it's not economical, but you just kind of set it up where you need it. Like what's your priority? So that's why family and farm are pretty much—we’ve got to protect the family a little more than the farm now. Farm's a business, protect your family first. So there's this little different thinking here. And then our equipment's so efficient now. It wasn't like our parents. My dad was out there with no GPS and they had to work just daylight hours and get as much done as they could with little equipment. Now our equipment's so fast and efficient. It's a full circle, like we got it fairly easy now.”
Coneally has worked with ag-tech companies, testing their tools to see how they can help farmers while also providing feedback for improvement.
