Despite the weather, I feel lucky compared to some areas of the country. We have been able to get most of the work done, with only some rutted tramlines to show for it.

Thankfully, the crops that have survived are looking strong and a few smaller doses of fertiliser have helped.

With such wet weather, the office work has had more attention than usual.

See also: How to succeed with the AHL2 winter bird food option in SFI

About the author

Charlie Cheyney

Arable Farmer Focus writer Charlie Cheyney farms more than 480ha land in Hampshire in partnership with his father. They run a mixed arable and 450-cow dairy enterprise, growing cereal and forage crops on varying soils, from chalk to heavy clay.

Read more articles by Charlie Cheyney

As a mixed farm, we use a range of farm software systems, including both agricultural specific programmes and those with more general use, such as accounting.

Trying to better utilise these packages has been rewarding, but also hugely frustrating.

The opportunity with farm computer systems is vast. On our dairy program, we can create yield reports that highlight a shortfall in the rearing of some of our animals, something that would be unnoticeable otherwise.

So, I am a true advocate for data driven farming.

That said, this rose-tinted view is not quite a reality. Something it highlights is the disparity between our ag specific and general business software.

The slow updates, clunky, and non-user-friendly ag system is from the stone age compared to the accountancy programs run by tech giants.

I do understand that the market for ag software is far smaller and, therefore, is less invested in. But I feel this is a limiting factor for the industry.

As a minimum, these systems need to be cloud-based, so at least data can be accessed anywhere and on the move. Farming is one job that isn’t office-based, so why is a lot of the software?

Ag specific programmes don’t have the customer base of the general ones, but surely this is not helped by the sheer number of competing products.

You often hear it said that if only there was an amalgamation of all their good points, it would be ideal.

Unfortunately, I don’t think the perfect all-in-one system is likely to occur any time soon.

A good start would be more collaboration between the companies producing these programs.

The reluctance for systems to share data is not within the farmer’s best interest, and is a huge industry barrier to being able to better utilise data and drive progress.