EasyPlan upgrade for Omnia digital agronomy platform – Farmers Guardian

With recent consolidation in the digital farm management sector, the company emphasises that the Omnia platform is designed in Britain for use by British farmers. Hutchinsons says its data-driven precision management system will help the arable industry become more productive and sustainable and quantify the impact of operations on the environment – assisting in waste reduction and improving soil health, water and air management and biodiversity.

The Omnia platform was first established in 2016, initially as a precision planning and nutrient management tool. It has evolved over the subsequent years to include more crop management features in response to user demand. Omnia is now used by more than 4,000 users covering 1.5 million hectares across the UK.

The latest EasyPlan upgrade follows an 18-monthdevelopment programme. Omnia is now a fully cloud-based system that performs all crop management tasks. The combination of new and heavily upgraded modules allows users to easily create field plans and records, manage stocks and choose who to share the data with – for example agronomists and spray operators.

The upgrade includes an extension of the existing Field Diary module into a fully comprehensive farm management system. Live field operations can be recorded as they happen through new task management functionality. A calendar view for task planning allows multiple plans to be combined into a single task and logged in a specific area for operators to access. Field records are then automatically shown within the existing Production module, to allow a complete gross margin analysis.

A new module that enables users to create spray plans has been added to the update. The plans will be audited by Hutchinsons’ bespoke HALO crop protection database to ensure they comply with pesticide legislation, Voluntary Initiative guidelines, labels and usage conditions. HALO is checked and enhanced daily by Hutchinsons’ in-house technical experts to ensure regulatory compliance.

The company says the new Spray Plan module-the most requested addition from consultations with its growers-will give agronomists and BASIS-registered farmers the ability to write their own spray recommendations.

The Omnia Scout app will be up-graded this summer, allowing operators to view and complete tasks in the field, along with providing an inter-active tank mix tool for spray plans to help operators with product and water requirements. The app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

Mr Wood adds: “The EasyPlan upgrade offers a set of exciting developments allowing for complete paperless record-keeping and work management, setting a new standard for farm management technology in the UK.

“Since its launch as a precision mapping system eight years ago, the platform has evolved into a broader digital farming system offering a range of valuable and user-friendly business modules, such as cost of production, yield mapping, rotational planning and carbon mapping tools.

“With its user-friendly interface and unparallelled functionality, the EasyPlan upgrade takes this one step further and underlines Hutchinsons’ focus on innovation and excellence and unwavering commitment and vision for Omnia,” he says.