Moving into management – Precise

There are already over 4000 users on Hutchinsons current Omnia platform covering 1.5m Ha of cropland in the UK and growing. So why does it need to change?

Food production needs to increase by 50% over the next few decades is the main headline here.

Plus, there are lots of drivers for growers to improve their technical efficiency, on the one hand, the cost of inputs is historically high, on the other the need to farm together with the environment has never been greater.

Growers are now using data to drive tangible results in the field and decrease environmental impact.

Against this backdrop, Hutchinsons have been working hard to develop Omnia. The main goals were to solve existing problems, streamlining ‘paperwork’ with the ability to complete records ‘on the go’, have up to date records in real time at any point during the season, all wrapped in one easy to use digital solution.

This upgrade represents a significant shift into the farm management software space and supports the digitisation of UK agriculture.

The developers also stress that the resulting software is a British solution for British Farmers.

Hutchinsons claim that Omnia is the next generation farm management system, lets delve into the key aspects.

Crop inspection requirements are common for most crops, and likely to become more widely adopted. Growers are now being asked for a justification of decisions and input applications. In addition, the requirement for end-to-end traceability is becoming central to many growing processes.

This is straightforward in Omnia and done either on the main platform at the desktop, or in the field with the app. The functionality allows the operator or agronomist, to simply drop pictures, geolocate them and make notes and log for future reference.

Records then sync back to Omnia seamlessly through the cloud. These can then be outputted as a report with chosen inspections and notes as required.

Historically there has been a lack of innovation in this area. Pesticide legislation makes this a tricky task as there are legal requirements to be kept abreast of. The Crop Protection Plans are a completely new module and the most requested addition.

The dashboard is tiled by crop and plan but can alternately be viewed by month or timeline rather than crop.

The planning screen flows through selecting the crop, then the fields, then the growth stage.

The spray module helps avoid incompatibilities and incorrect sequences. It also auto-sorts products by default, as they are added to the plan, to helps eliminate human error.

The embedded tank mix calculator enables accurate tank mixing for full and part loads, rather than just the whole prescription (for the total area) as we spray on a per field basis, and perhaps not all fields in the prescription at the same time.

The spray plans include maps for operator familiarity.

There is a reluctance for many growers to move from proven, reliable and mainly office-based paper systems. This is rooted in fear of incompatibilities, loss of information and data security concerns. Assuming these concerns can be met, feedback from Hutchinsons farmer focus group, their internal agronomy team and over 250 sprayer operators showed a clear desire to move to digital records.

In many cases there is a disconnect between office and field, with different businesses and stakeholders being involved throughout the process.

The Field Diary enables flexible record management, with the ability to record from the task in hand backwards. With the task option every time you plan an application this automatically produces a plan.

The Task manager function, only available from the office/desktop, is for administrators to issue work tasks to operators, and manage tasks across time, people, and machines.

The upgraded module allows for a real-time, feature rich, stock management system for keeping track of orders and physical inventory based on what is being used.

The module can create and manage supplier orders. The user can manage suppliers as required. Although Hutchinsons do not have access to other suppliers information within the customers system. It’s connected to Hutchinsons Enterprise Resource Planning system for swifter ordering; however customers do not have to order stock via Hutchinsons.

Profitability is a critical part of business management, and the existing Cost of Production module offers dynamic updates, at whole field and in-field resolution, and automatic CO₂e calculations.

As operations occur during the season, costs and inputs automatically accumulate in this module.

The Omnia dashboard allows user to ‘slice and dice’ the data depending on the output required. Fixed costs, gross margin, net margin, yield can all be inspected to look at fields in comparison across different criteria.

Omnia with the EasyPlan upgrade will be available within the current Field Manager and Business Manager subscription levels, with Business Manager being required for the HALO auditing functionality.

This new functionality will be available from 7th June and will have its first public outing at the Cereals Event.