I wanted to go back and check to be sure, but you don't need to check the type here.  The `validate_with_model` decorator will do that by using a mapping a `{column: allowed_types}`. 

```python
from pyfarm.models.software import Software
types = Software.types()
print(types.mappings["software_versions"])
```

The logic for this starts here: https://github.com/pyfarm/pyfarm-master/blob/55fd1ea3bab233f7bdc19c8ec92493b567c371ed/pyfarm/master/utility.py#L164