With Hutchinsons Agronomist, Andrew Goodinson

We chat to Andrew about all things Greenlight Farm Management, from his favourite and most used features to what emerging technologies he thinks we will be seeing in the coming months.

Watch our interview with Andrew below -

What are your key time saving areas in Greenlight Farm Management?: Greenlight Farm Management (GLFM) has saved a lot of time in terms of locating bits of paper in the office or the back of the car, all the information is stored in one central place and can be accessed from anywhere, on your phone, iPad or laptop.

The historical data is very helpful, for some of the farms I have data going back 30 years which makes it easier to quickly check rotations reports (per crop or per field) before discussing what to plant next and how to do it.  All of this can be done whilst out in the fields, I don’t have to wait until I’m back at my car or in the office to print out pages of application reports.

Also, If I am unable to visit a client, a colleague can easily login to GLFM and find the field, what it’s been treated with and go and see the client to sort the problem out. 

Most used functions?:

- Applications reports

- Recommendation sheets for seed, fertiliser and sprays

- Inspection reports – especially for fruit and vegetable clients who need a good audit chain of information. It’s almost as important to record when we don’t make a recommendation as much as when we do, as it shows that the crop has been inspected and is fine

Has GLFM Improved spray compliance for audits?: Yes, having a record of information that has come from myself to GLFM and is all filled in gives peace of mind, it’s traceable and accountable and the customer knows that the protocols of maximum rate harvest intervals have been taken into account.

How does GLFM help with tracking spend throughout the season?: It’s useful to discuss with growers at the end of the season that we spent this much because of X,Y and Z. It’s quite a time consuming job, but a very valuable discussion point with clients. We can also do a running budget of where we are with seed, fertiliser and sprays.

How does GLFM help you to provide a better service for your clients?: As we are a part of the farm team and responsible for spending a lot of our clients money, GLFM makes everything accountable, recorded and available to be discussed and shown in an easy form - which is worth a lot.

It has solidified the relationship that we have with our clients and almost become an expected part of improving goods and services. It’s good to be able to show new growers who aren’t on GLFM that this is how it can make life easier for the both of us, with all the information in the same place that can be accessed by everyone at the same time.

What emerging technologies do you think we will be seeing this year?: I think we will be seeing more satellite imaging, more drone technology and in field assessments – whether that be measuring nitrogen in leaves or analysing disease presence in fields. All providing layers of technology and information that we can use to make the correct decision.

How do you see the sustainability landscape developing?: I think we will see the input and updates of biological and nutrition products broadening the stream from just pesticides, becoming a more important part of what we are doing now. With less reliance on ‘bags and cans’ and more focus on rotation information and cover crops fitting into rotations with the ability to record and justify it.

Your favourite features of GLFM? :

- The clarity of the recommendation sheets and the ease in which the operator can fill them in on the app or their phone. The ability to see the percentage rate of what we are using so we can minimize all stock is particularly useful, as well as being able to input lots of notes i.e. weather conditions, humidity or how many litres of stock to use up

- Like all systems it’s only as good as the person inputting the data, GLFM has made it easier for everyone to do this. Therefore, the more information everyone inputs the better outcomes everyone can get

- Producing draft plans for discussion with growers, if I can do that in the autumn or winter it saves time in the spring

- Product use reports, these are good for planning stocks for next year, what we’ve used and how that’s worked