Siobhain aims ‘to simplify farming’ with new app
Siobhain Molloy from Bunbrosna has been selected to showcase her new farming app, FieldFirst, at the National Ploughing Championships.
The 16-year-old began work on the app as part of a TY science project at Loreto College, and she believes she as found a gap in the market for a platform that can keep track of all aspects of farming.
“The main goal of the app is to simplify farming, because, in my opinion, it had became too complicated,” she said. “There are all sorts of different records to be kept and things to keep track of, and there was no one platform for every aspect of farming, until now.”
The app includes everything from animals and crops to compliance and nitrates to marts and agri news.
Siobhain is looking forward to the Ploughing, where she is hoping to gain more users and to receive feedback that will help her to improve the technology further. She will be in the Innovation Arena (stand number 17) on September 15-17.
“The app was entered in SciFest in March,” said Siobhain, “and it has had a lot of changes and improvements since then. I’ve met lots of people through developing the app – I had a meeting with the founders of MartEye; I have also met people in the Local Enterprise Office and at Met Éireann, MTU, Animal Health Ireland and many more.
“Most recently I have been in to some of the vets in town, and also to Glanbia – they are displaying posters with information about the app and a free QR code to access it. Glanbia also offered to circulate the poster to all their stores nationwide.
“The app is currently free and I have many people using it. I am looking to get many more in the run-up to the ploughing and at the ploughing itself, as the more users I have, the more feedback I can get, the more I can improve the app.”
Keen on sport as well as farming, Siobhain plays with Clann Gaels and volunteers to coach the Bunbrosna nursery football group each week; she also plays badminton in Mullingar.
She hopes to “study veterinary, agriculture or anything with animals really, at third level”.