Local Invention Tracks Farm Workers’ Hours, Output

Two inventors who were watching the strawberry harvest from a Laguna Niguel window have improved the process of timing and paying agricultural workers.

Their invention, DataTrack, is a small button that attaches to a worker’s identification card. The card can be scanned, and field supervisors can keep accurate count of the number of flats of strawberries or buckets of chili peppers picked by each worker.

The system can also keep track of workers’ hours, the inventors said, and it’s handy on organic farms that grow dozens of varieties of produce.

Carl Gennaro, 39, a former electrical contractor, said that he and his partner ran across the touch memory buttons, which are made by Dallas Semiconductor. Gennaro’s partner, Jeff Brumit, 38, had worked in data management systems.

The two were seeking applications for the buttons, computer memory chips contained in weatherproof stainless steel.

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“We were looking for someone who needed to keep track of time remotely who was working in harsh weather,” Gennaro said Monday. “We looked out the window, and there it was.”

His company, Agricultural Data Systems, created a time-keeping program based on the buttons. The system is now being used on 35 farms in California and Florida, Gennaro said.

At one of them, a 1,000-person operation, he said, DataTrack has reduced payroll calculations from a two-day job to five minutes’ work.