Farm Hack Talk

Hello! I'm competing on an entrepreneurship event and I have this idea to make a small, very easy to use, automated hydroponic system, that people can buy and put on their apartment with little effort. I have 3 weeks to make a prototype, and the only thing I know is computer science and I have an arduino! My friend that studies biology will be in my group, and I want to ask for ideas of a small prototype and how the prototype would work. The thing I have in mind is a very small system that holds itself on the floor, and you can grow just a couple plants.

I didn't create this device, so all credit to these farmers for working out a way to keep their goats water buckets from freezing in the winter, using tires, foam insulation and a bit of styrofoam.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/self-reliance/how-to-keep-livestock-water-from-freezing-zm0z15djzkin.aspx

I would like plans for making a slef feeder for pigs out of a 50 gallon barrel. Thank youl.

Hi everyone, I'm part of a hardware startup called Thermodo - we've built a tiny electrical thermometer for your mobile device that let's you measure the temperature - right where you are. I'm here at FarmHack as many of the Thermodo users are farmers or working in agronomy and we're currently seeking insights in how we can better serve farmers with our product and companion app. And apart from close dialogue with our current users, I wanted to check if any of you here at FarmHack would be interested in sharing what features in such an app/device would be helpful for you as a farmer?

I'm looking into using the tarping method popularized most recently by Jean-Martin Fortier in The Market Gardener to help with weed pressure in our permanent raised beds, and was hoping to get some practical advice on materials, timing, and effectiveness from someone that's actually tried it. I have a few questions/ideas:

We would love to host a farm hack event here at our place and I am sure several of our partner farms would participate as well. Let us know if anyone in the area is interested and we will start to plan something.

Dry land is obviously already a problem, and it seems the problem is only going to increase in North America and elsewhere. I'd never run across this tractor attachment before - or perhaps it hadn't caught my attention until now - but it seems impressive, and essentially simple. "Land Imprinter". Watch this video for the basic intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ju4mkQAUMI

Here is a page depicting a small-homestead scale version of the imprinter: http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Land_Imprinting

We are Farmers in Manchester are hosting a 2-day Farm Hack in October. Tickets can be ordered (free) here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/farmhack-farmlab-manchester-tickets-18463279165

I’m looking for websites that are as good or better than the one’s I’m going to list below. (I'll just mention there is nothing more excellent than FarmHack Tools, or Marcin Jakubowski's site.)

The list's sites have content concerned with the re-use or adaptation of components, old machinery, and salvaged materials to make things of use on a homestead or small farm. In other words, illustrations, description, or complete how-to articles (or videos) showing how ingenuity, design and skills can be combined to fabricate these useful things.

Event Info