In 2017-2018, funding was awarded from the Kentucky Soybean Promotion Board to develop a one of a kind mobile app to aid farmers in their decision on where to deliver soybeans to maximize profits, The Best Bean Buyer. This project was a multidisciplinary effort between Agricultural Economics and Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering departments. To our knowledge, this is also one of the first mobile apps developed in the college. Since its release in October of 2017 for both Apple and Android platforms, there have been 200 downloads of the app. In addition to the app, a YouTube tutorial was developed to guide users through all the functions of the app. There are currently 225 views of the YouTube tutorial. I have conducted numerous county meetings and field day training on the app reaching over 600 direct contacts on the training alone. Furthermore, three in-service training were delivered to train county ANR agents on how to use the app. Numerous television and radio interviews were conducted regarding the app, as well as newsletters, Grain Crops blog posts, and posts on social media. I also shared the development of the app with my colleagues across the southern region via a presentation at our annual Southern Extension Economics Committee Meeting. Surveys were conducted during field days to assess the value of the app to soybean farmers in Kentucky. Roughly 7% of Kentucky soybean producers indicated they could gain $50+ per load of soybeans by using the app. Another 56% said they could gain $25 per load of soybeans by using the app. The other 36% indicated they don’t plan on using the app. Using an average soybean farm in Kentucky and the values indicated above, the app could gain producers $2000 per farm (or download).

The delivery of this project is a great representation of the collaborative efforts with the college and stakeholders in Kentucky to provide a useful tool for farmers that can make a substantial economic impact on their operations. Not only did this project deliver a successful extension output but also resulted in two peer reviewed journal publications.