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How a harvest text bot on my farm grew into a farm app.
App screenshots: Doe Family Farms demo, fictional data.
I farm corn and soybeans with my family and a crew of employees, and I train farmers on precision ag. Like most farms, our busy season ran on texts, ticket photos, and a workbook that was always a few days behind.
I didn't set out to build an app. I set out to stop retyping scale tickets at night. Here's how it grew.
How it grew
1. It started with GrainGrok and a text thread
September 2026, during harvest
The first piece was GrainGrok, working over our farm's Google Voice texts. The crew kept doing what they already did: texting photos of elevator tickets and grain cart weights from the truck or the cab.
GrainGrok read those photos and logged them in my grain workbook. It matched ticket numbers so a load never got counted twice, split tickets by owner, and kept the bin flow straight: what went in, what came out, and what was left.
That took a nightly chore off my plate, and the numbers got better.
Today the same ticket photos come in through Crew Chat, and GrainGrok logs the load.
2. Then ShopGrok for the shop
2. Then ShopGrok for the shop
Once grain was working, the shop was next. ShopGrok keeps service intervals, the fuel log, and parts. Each machine also gets its own daily service checklist, and every morning ShopGrok posts the day's lists for the crew to check off as they go.
3. Then it became the farm app
3. Then it became the farm app
October 2026
Texts got us started, but the farm needed one place to look. In October it became an app on the phone and the desktop:
Dashboard with harvest, bins, and shop, kept current as the work happens.
Crew Chat, one group chat for ticket photos and checklists.
Tell a bot. Send GrainGrok or ShopGrok a "Do this" job or an "Ask" question.
Owner approvals. Crew notes wait in the Inbox for a person to approve them.
Roles for owner, partner, manager, and crew. Crew never see the money side.
Push alerts so the right person knows when something needs them.
It's built around how my operation runs. That's the point: yours runs differently, and it should be built around yours.
Daily checklists on the Shop page, set up per machine and grouped by season: Harvest, Planting, and Spraying.
4. Where it's going (not built yet)
4. Where it's going (not built yet)
These are next on my list. They are plans, not finished features.
Spraying: loads, products, and records for the spray side.
Billing for spray loads and field logs, straight from what was logged.
Other farms and livestock: the same approach, adapted to other operations.
How it works today
How it works today
The crew snaps a ticket. A driver posts the ticket photo or a quick note.
The bot checks and logs it. GrainGrok or ShopGrok reads it, catches mistakes like a duplicate ticket, and asks if something doesn't add up.
The owner approves. One tap in the Inbox. The crew sees it move: Sent, Received, Approved, Logged.
The dashboard updates. Harvest, bins, and shop numbers stay current, on the phone or at the desk.
A look inside
A look inside
Screenshots from the Doe Family Farms demo. All names, fields, and numbers are fictional.
Harvest. Acres, bushels, yield, and moisture by crop and field, from combine data and scale tickets.
The dashboard home: jump to any section, with numbers the bots keep current.
Bins. What's in every bin, how full it is, and who owns what.
Harvest totals, updated as loads come in.
Checklists in Crew Chat. The crew ticks items off as they work, adds a task, or skips one for today.
Rebuilt from the tickets as loads come in.
Approve. Tap Approve and the button turns solid green with your name and the time. Then the bot logs it.
Everyone sees who did what and when.
Tell a bot. Managers and owners pick "Do this" for a job or "Ask" for a question.
No guessing whether it went through.
The bot confirms. The reply shows up in My requests.
"Add a grease task to the combine list," sent to ShopGrok.
You stay in charge
You stay in charge
People approve and the bot logs. Nothing gets recorded without a person signing off. You decide who sees what, and your crew sees only what they need.
Off the table, by design: prices, positions, chem rates, money.
Working with Jeff
Working with Jeff
Learn to build yours. A session online or in person, one-on-one or with a group.
Optional setup help. If you'd rather have a hand, I can help you set it up.
You keep it. It runs on Grok, in your account, with your data.
"I built mine. Let me teach you how to build yours." Jeff Young
See it for yourself
See it for yourself
I'll walk you through the demo in a one-hour session and we'll talk through what yours could look like.
Email jeffyoung.yfi@gmail.com for a 1-hour demo invite.
Built by Jeff Young Farms App screenshots: Doe Family Farms demo, fictional data
Done: the grease task is added and the tractor hours are logged.
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