Milk me some of that Open Source

For many years, dairy farmers have found method after method for using existing technology to make the milk farm more efficient. Well these days is no different and their latest move just reinforces the ability to embrace change in order to remain competitive.

In South Africa, dairy farmers have decided to implement Open Source software in order to improve their farming techniques. Some of the dairy farming-specific modules include PHP, Apache and MySQL.

South African dairy farmers are starting to use open source software to improve their farming techniques and outputs. ACS Online has developed a range of dairy farming-specific modules using PHP, Apache and MySQL running on Sun boxes with Solaris 9. The modules currently available include financial management, a sustainable pasture management system, livestock management and a performance analysis module which uses the Balanced Scorecard reporting technique. ACS Online is a Sun Microsystems associate and supports the work of ACS Agricultural Consulting Services.

Sidney Badier, CIO of ACS Online, says the use of open source software has “given us many advantages such as the undeniable performance capabilities of MySQL and PHP, while we have also been able to produce an application at a fraction of the cost of using proprietary software.”

Badier is particularly enthusiastic about the Sustainable Pasture Management System (SPS) module. “This has been live and available for almost two months now and already over 70 customers countrywide are successfully using the solution,” he says.