Turning data into pounds

After a move over to Omnia’s digital farming platform earlier this year, Norfolk grower Hamish Fleming of Sherborne Hall, Kings Lynn, has been able to cover the costs of the system through the payments from the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) PRF1 Action for variable rate applications.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is part of the UK government’s Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS), aimed at supporting farmers in adopting sustainable practices. However, navigating these options can be complex and time-consuming, leading to underutilisation of available incentives and missed opportunities for maximising returns.

James Lane, Omnia specialist points out the removal of direct support (BPS) and increasing frequency of extreme weather events, both wet and dry, has brought even greater urgency to change.

“The launch of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), has brought about increasing popularity of regen-type systems, and a multitude of new technologies available all promise potential solutions, however it is important to avoid knee-jerk reactions.”

He insists any changes need to be well planned, based on solid evidence, and be right for the business.

For Hamish Fleming, recognising the need to adapt to reduce risk to the business has seen a move from a more traditional, intensive farming system to one more focussed on soil health and reducing costs.

“We have been looking to adopt a more variable approach for inputs, not necessarily to reduce them, but to use them where needed in a sensible and measured way, to allow us to maintain or even improve overall yields.”

“Within this transition, we wanted to establish a baseline of current soil status to highlight any areas that need addressing and provide a benchmark from which to measure the effectiveness of any changes. We recognised the more accurate the data we put into the system, the better our variable plans would be, ” he says.

On this basis and looking to gain a deeper understanding of the dynamics of the soils across the 500ha he rents from the Sandringham Estate, Mr Fleming had the whole of the farm Terramapped in 2023.

He opted for the Gold level service; the combination of TerraMap’s high-definition gamma ray scanning of key soil properties, with Hutchinsons’ comprehensive Soils Gold analysis, that provides the most accurate and repeatable soil mapping service available.

“It offers a unique understanding of how and why soil performs the way it does, and highlights in-field variations with clear digital maps. Analysing the data through Omnia, further allows tailored management plans and variable application maps to be created quickly and easily, explains Hutchinsons head of soils, Ian Robertson.

“This is a big advance from traditional soil testing based on homogenised core samples collected across the field, where sampling is less precise, limiting the accuracy of results and how they can be used,” he notes.

“If you’re looking to make significant changes that affect the soil, such as reducing cultivations, or cutting fertiliser rates, you have to earn the right to do so,” he says.

“TerraMap Gold lets you fully understand the soil’s building blocks and why it behaves in a certain way. That performance may be good, or bad, but knowing exactly what is happening beneath the surface is the starting point for more effective decisions around cultivation strategy, organic matter applications, liming, or the amount and type of fertiliser to apply.”

“If you’ve got variable soils, it allows you to understand where those variations are and make some impactful decisions. That may include variable rate nutrition, or for applying lime for pH adjustment, or to correct soil structural issues through targeted use of something like gypsum,” he says.

Mr Fleming is enthusiastic about the results garnered from TerraMap Gold and how the valuable data will help to generate the most accurate variable rate plans: “We have gained an incredible insight into the variations in soils and nutrients across our fields. Once the data is all in the system, Omnia generates the variable rate plans in a nice, friendly map format from which we have created accurate variable rate application maps as well as seed maps.”

“For example, the Terramap results showed we had built up a good levels of Phosphorus in the soil, so applying variably meant in the first year we definitely saved on fertiliser. This year  we are applying a 0.26.26 blend, with Phosphrous being the target nutrient, and topping up the Potassium with MOP.

“All of this has been very straightforward to do with Omnia as it’s all calculated by the system – all I have to do is it on a memory stick and off I go.”

With regards to generating the SFI reports for variable rate applications, Mr Fleming has been able to do this simply by assigning the SFI action to the field in Omnia, it’s as simple as that.

“We are very happy with the decision to move to Omnia this year and financially we have been able to balance the costs of the system off against the SFI payments we receive as the £27/ha we are paid for the SFI action more than covers the £16/ha cost for the Gold Terramapping and the Omnia software fee.”

Mr Fleming is also an early adopter of the Omnia upgrade launched earlier this year, providing users with a new and exciting farm management software system. “ We were using a different farm management system but I always found it complicated, whereas the new functionality in Omnia is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

“I really like that my agronomist, who does not work for Hutchinsons, is also linked into my Omnia account so any changes made by either of us are instantly uploaded, reducing communication issues with stocks or field sizes – which again improves our efficiency.”

“Documenting in the field diary in the app is easy, tasks created are easily viewed on the screen and cultivations and applications can be added in moving from field to field. Sprayer operators have all the plans on an ipad or phone and are able to easily view their loads,” he adds.

He points out one particularly useful  feature that allows him to see the variable net margins across a single field linked to the variable rate application maps, be that seed or fertiliser.

To do this Omnia allows users to compare variable and fixed rate costs at sub field level with traffic light labelling from red to green. Prices are updated as crop protection plans are inputted, and integrated into Omnia’s business model.

“ In a few years I should be able to see if any parts of a field are consistently underperforming and then I can look at putting these into an SFI plan, and all this is done for me.”

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