Yacker
Article by Alice Armitage Photography by Mads Porter
From their work as agronomist to their foray in running a tech start-up, Heath McWhiter and Emma Ayliffe are dedicated to shaping a better future for farmers.
As agronomists and the founders of the Yacker app, Heath McWhiter and Emma Ayliffe, continuously find themselves on the phone to farmers, working as the conduit between producers and the information those producers need to better their production practices. “Through our work we identified that we were joining the dots for a lot of farmers, putting them in touch with other farmers or people we thought they should be speaking to, to talk about the problems they were facing,” shares Emma. “That’s how Yacker started. I’ve always seen that our role has been about extending knowledge and we wanted to find a better way for people in the industry to access the wealth of information that’s out there.”
Sparked by many five a.m phone calls, when the day usually starts for this duo, the concept behind the Yacker app continued to develop into a tool to connect those in agriculture facing the same problems but with different backgrounds and experiences to encourage everyone to think outside the box. “Emma and I often have farmers call us that are sitting on a tractor, they’d been there for a while and were going to be there all day. We’d chat to them about things related to agronomy but those farmers would want to keep talking about general farming things. It was obvious that we should be joining these farmers up to talk to each other rather than be talking to us!”
In many ways, the platform has been designed to replicate the unique role an agronomist plays in a farming operation. Agronomists often act as the middle space for farmers, the trusted connector that disseminates information from university researchers, industry trial outcomes and the experiences of other farmers. While agronomists continue to play a vital role, this bottleneck for knowledge sharing is a challenge and the Yacker app presents a real opportunity to address the issue and to create real impact across the sector.
So how does the Yacker app work? It all depends on what the user is looking for; maybe they’re after a new piece of machinery and wanting some advice about it, maybe they’ve found a strange weed and they share a photo with the community to identify it or they’re simply wanting to connect with other peers to expand their knowledge of the industry. { like minded people to talk with.} Designed with simplicity of use in mind the key features of the app include a discussion forum, the ability to search for specific people, interests and locations as well as setting your own interests and discussion points. Which is enabling users to engage in the crowdsourcing of information from those with the knowledge and experience to make valuable contributions. Heath and Emma believe there needs to be a shift in the way that farmers and those in agriculture look for information and how that search for information is integrated into a farmer’s day-to-day operations. Something they believe can be solved through their platform. “We’ve got to change the way that information is shared going forward. Everyone is becoming more and more isolated on farms because of the shift technology has created. We’re seeing that locally with things like field days, hardly any farmers turn up to something like that anymore. Whereas ten years ago, they’d be dozens of people there. We need to be able to replace those interactions where information is shared, in a way that farmers want to participate in,” shares Heath. “If we can turn Yacker into a daily habit for a farmer, we’ve succeeded.”
One of the biggest challenges to overcome when building an app like this is a farmer’s natural inclination to be stand-offish. Ask anyone who knows a farmer and they’ll tell you that no one can talk as much as a farmer can, especially when you get them started about the one thing they’re most passionate about, agriculture. But building that initial trust that makes those farmers feel comfortable talking to a relative stranger is no easy feat. A key feature of the app is designed particularly to address this objection. “The app promotes people connecting and having a conversation over the phone. I would say that getting on the phone is one of the fastest ways for people to build trust and to really get to the root of the problem. It’s much more valuable,” said Heath.
Asking a particular set of questions when someone first starts using the app also acts as a qualifying mechanism, where everyone on the app can start to understand the ethos, experience and perspective of each member of the community so they can connect with those that most align with them and what they’re looking to get out of the app. Overall, Yacker has been designed with intention and to promote the building of trust in a way that feels familiar and relatable to the intended audience, farmers.
Juggling their agronomy business, Summit Ag Agricultural Consulting, alongside building Yacker has made for a very busy couple of years for Heath and Emma. Initially the pair started working on the app in 2019, in the midst of the drought when they had plenty of spare time on their hands. But just as things started to kick off for Yacker, the season changed and Heath and Emma entered the busiest and biggest couple of years they’ve ever seen in their consulting business. Through it all they’ve somehow managed to keep their passion project alive and now Heath and Emma have partnered with business foundry, Dirt Lab to see that Yacker continues to grow to new heights.
Dirt Lab is comprised of a team of experienced start-up operators with a keen interest in supporting sustainable and impact driven agricultural innovations. “We saw an opportunity to partner with people who had really impressive industry knowledge, connections, and a deep understanding of the need for a new approach to facilitating connection for people across the industry,” shares Jess Pattison, co-founder of Dirt Lab. “Knowledge sharing is such an integral element of the agricultural industry and there is so much potential for Yacker. We’re keen to help accelerate its growth.” Since jumping on board, the Dirt Lab team have been dispensing their skills and experience accelerating new ventures like this one to pursue new opportunities that will see Yacker play such a pivotal role in a farmers everyday life, we’ll soon not know how we ever got by without it.
“Building Yacker has definitely been a challenge. It’s taken a completely different skill set to what Heath and I have – we’ve well and truly expended ourselves. Working with Dirt Lab has really broadened our horizons and they’ve shown us how we can really build this business into something that will have a lasting impact on the industry,” said Emma.
When asked about her aspirations for Yacker’s future, Emma had a very simple answer. “We’re just trying to create a space where people can feel comfortable talking about wacky ideas, brainstorm solutions or just work out cool new ways of doing things and sharing information without having to rely on a single point of view or piece of information. Your sphere of influence begins to grow when you use resources like the Yacker app and in turn the industry as a whole can keep getting better and better.”
If you’re interested in seeing more of our work - we hope you’ll consider subscribing to our physical paper here.
