Client project · Inverness Victoria Federation of Agriculture

FieldBook: software for shared farm equipment.

A custom web application for coordinating equipment sharing across a farming federation. I designed, built, deployed, and operate FieldBook for the Inverness Victoria Federation of Agriculture.

Client: Inverness Victoria Federation of Agriculture
Status: Live and in service
My role: Design, UI/UX, development, deployment, hosting
Built with: Ruby on Rails · DigitalOcean · Kamal

FieldBook’s equipment list, showing machines such as a bale wrapper, disc mower and round baler, each marked available, out, down for repairs or ready for pickup, with the caretaker who holds it. — The equipment list shows what’s available, what’s out, and who holds each machine. Demo data shown.

The work to coordinate

The federation owns equipment shared by its members. Machines are kept with designated caretakers, while farmers need to know what’s available, where they stand in the queue, and when they can collect it.

The application needs to account for more than a booking. Equipment changes hands from farm to farm, usage needs to be recorded, and the next person needs to know what shape a machine is in.

What I built

FieldBook coordinates that equipment lifecycle in one application. Members browse equipment, join queues, and are notified when they’re next. Each member can see their active loans, their place in each queue, and their rental totals for the season.

Caretakers set the order of each queue, can hold a machine for repairs, and see its recent rentals, with the days, acres and notes recorded for each.

A member’s Activity page in FieldBook: a round baler ready for pickup with a Confirm Pickup button, a notification that they’re next for a no-till seeder, their active loans, rental totals and queue positions. — A member’s activity: what’s ready to collect, where they are in each queue, and their rental totals.

A caretaker’s view of a no-till seeder in FieldBook: status Out, a queue of three members with controls to reorder or remove them, a Hold for Repairs link, and recent rentals listing days, acres and return notes. — Caretakers set the queue order, hold machines for repairs, and see each recent rental.

Designed around the handoffs

Most of the work happens between farms, not in an office. FieldBook is built around the moments a machine changes hands. The next member is notified, confirms the pickup in the app, and is prompted to check the machine over before driving away.

A return carries what the next person needs to know. The member records how many days they used the machine, can leave notes for the caretaker, and can flag it for repairs before it goes out again.

FieldBook on a phone: a Confirm pickup sheet for a round baler, reminding the member to check the machine for dirt, damage or low fluids before driving away. — Confirming a pickup, with a reminder to check the machine first.

FieldBook on a phone: a Return Disc Mower sheet with optional notes for the caretaker, the number of days used, a checkbox to flag repairs, and a Complete Return button. — Returning a machine: days used, notes for the caretaker, and a repair flag.

My role

I handled product design, UI/UX, Ruby on Rails development, deployment, and hosting. FieldBook runs on DigitalOcean, deployed with Kamal.

In service

FieldBook is live and in service with the Inverness Victoria Federation of Agriculture.

Does your operation need its own software?

Tell me what you need to coordinate and where the current approach falls short.

Discuss a project Or email kenzie@route19.com