For many no-tillers, the field of ag-specific mobile apps can feel a bit like the Wild West.

The general-use app market seems to be saturated and difficult to navigate, and the market for farming apps is no different. A broad search of “agriculture” in Apple’s App Store alone turns up 720 results.

Luckily, the market for farming apps has been evolving; separating the wheat from the chaff is a process that has been happening naturally. The most useful apps are apparently being selected for survival based on customer feedback and reviews.

Still, the time a user must spend learning to use each individual app, and the amount of data they must input before they get useful output, has many farmers asking: is it worth it?

To bring some clarity, No-Till Farmer surveyed readers about what mobile apps they use in their operations, and what value they provided. We also asked about the frustrations apps created, and which apps no-tillers had on their wish lists to improve efficiency and productivity in their operations.

Ag App Prevalence

According to the No-Till Farmer poll, there are plenty of growers who’ve jumped on the farming app bandwagon, but others are still mulling the idea or flatly refusing to do so. But that may come with the cost of missed opportunities in farming precision, accuracy and efficiency.

Some 45% of respondents say they use several different ag apps on a regular basis, and 28% report using them in only a limited capacity (one or two…