Hand-held technology is helping one Bedfordshire farm manage the large amount of data being generated when adopting precision farming techniques without having to spend much more time stuck back in the farm office.

For the past three-and-a-half years, farm manager Chris Papworth has been working hard to usher in a new era of precision farming at Crown Farm, which sits in the village of Little Staughton, 10 miles north-east of Bedford.

Yield mapping, variable seed rates and variable applications of phosphate and potash are just some examples of the precision farming methods this forward-thinking farm is harnessing to drive up long-term yields and bring down costs.

About one-third of the land on the 573ha farm was scanned and mapped last spring, enabling winter wheat and spring barley to be drilled at variable rates this season.

Maximise yields

Variable nitrogen applications are also being trialled this spring, which Mr Papworth hopes will work in tandem with the variable-rate seeding to save on input costs and maximise yields.

“We are still looking at how it will all work and pay its way. It will possibly take two or three years to show that it does pay for itself,” he says.

Mr Papworth was one of the first growers in the country to trial a new record keeping and agronomy system from Frontier, to further advance the farm’s efficiency through technology.

See also: How to extend greening to improve oilseed rape yields

His agronomist, Andrew Havergal, who is also Frontier’s agronomy IT manager, explains that the MyFarm system was developed to enhance growers’ budgeting ability, while integrating soil profiling and yield mapping with variable-rate applications.

Farm manager Chris Papworth (left) with Frontier agronomist Andrew Havergal

One feature that attracts Mr Papworth to the system over other software packages is keeping monotonous paperwork to a minimum through a greater use of mobile devices.

“Being a cloud-based record-keeping system, it can be used on iPads and iPhones, as well as on the computer,” explains Mr Havergal.

Better communication

While the full benefits of the field mapping and variable-rate upgrades at Crown Farm may take several years to be realised, one immediate advantage is improved communication between agronomist and grower.

A prime example of this was when Mr Havergal was checking newly established oilseed rape while Mr Papworth was out combining winter beans last September.

“Andrew was keeping an eye on the crop because we knew cabbage stem flea beetle pressure was likely to be an issue,” says Mr Papworth.

“One field got a recommendation through to spray as soon as possible. We got Andrew’s recommendation, picked up the chemical and were spraying an hour or so later.

“In this situation, time is precious and without this system I would have had to wait for Andrew to email a recommendation later that day and the process would have taken much longer, with the potential for more crop damage.”

Mr Havergal can make recommendations on the go using his iPad, with all the necessary paperwork sent direct to the grower.

“It’s about the accuracy of communication as much as the speed of it,” adds Mr Havergal.

“It can be better than picking up the phone from an agronomist’s point of view, because you really need to have the paperwork in order with the product details and rates, which isn’t possible by just ringing up a farmer.”

Helpful technology

Mr Papworth explains that the farm has multiple mobile devices so that any worker can pick up a job when it comes in and progress can be tracked.

Many growers are turning to similar software solutions to help cut paperwork and save time.

“I’m not a big fan of office work so this system is good because I don’t have to remember to copy the information into the computer system – it’s all synced up straight away, there’s no duplication of work and less room for error.”

In the future, Mr Papworth aims to get to the stage where every farm task is recorded on a mobile device, using the efficiency of this system.