When farmers lead the research into what they need, it turns out that they come up with practical answers to problems that researchers wouldn’t think of. And when engineers are involved, those answers often involve new apps.

Like the question of what happens if a person is injured or has a health emergency when they are by themselves in a shed on the farm and can’t call for help.

The resulting ‘on farm safety app’, which people can download from Google Play, alerts colleagues if someone doesn’t move for longer than an agreed length of time. The app can be used anywhere on a farm but its main focus was staff working with livestock in sheds and barns, where the GPS technology that is relied on outdoors usually doesn’t work.