Whatever the size of your herd, keeping tabs on your animal operation involves a lot of data. Recording field grazing history, amount of supplementary feed required and soil health are key to being able to identify pastures that are over or under used. Making the switch from paper and pen to fieldmargin app both saves time and increases accuracy. 

Hundreds of livestock farmers around the world use fieldmargin every day to help manage their cattle or sheep farms.  Here’s some of the ways they are using it:

Recording livestock locations and numbers

You can record the number of livestock in each field using notes attached to fields. When you move livestock you can set up a task.  Over time this will build up a field grazing history as you work. 

You can add your fertiliser requirements dates and details to each field as tasks. This will help you keep organised and save a permanent record. When you complete a task the information is automatically saved to your field history. You can also upload a file to a field if you already have any recommendations saved in a document. 

Communicating with the team

Use farm chat and comments on notes and tasks to send messages with your team in the field and in the office. You can use comments to ask for more information about a task, report progress on a job and to record changes you will want to refer to later on. For example if a sheep is sick you can use a note to add location, medicine details and health progress. 

Plate meter measurements for pasture

Effective pasture management is key to meeting the needs of grazing livestock. Rising plate meters provide a convenient way of assessing field cover through measurements of the sward height. Monitoring sites on fieldmargin can be used to record your plate meter readings and the available DM in each field while you are on the go so you can easily plan how to allocate your grazing. You set up data monitoring sites for anything that you like for example, soils conditions, sheering numbers, worm counts, and breeding details. 

Mending fences

We don’t have to tell you that a big part of livestock farming is mending fences! You can set up tasks on your fieldmargin map so that you do not forget locations that need repairing  

Some of our users add before and after photos to show the team that the damage has been fixed. 

Recording environmental work

Try using fieldmargin to record the environmental work you do on your farm. For example Eric Lerner is monitoring how holistic management can improve the landscape and wildlife diversity and he uses fieldmargin to measure areas of land that he has regenerated. He uses data monitoring sites to record Monarch butterfly sightings on his land as a way of assessing habitat regeneration. He has seen significant improvements in Butterfly Milkweed and Golden Rod forbs species which are critical plants for the survival of the Monarch Butterfly. 

Monitoring pasture health using satellite imagery

Measuring grass growth using satellite imagery has the potential to reduce the amount of time spent measuring the health of available grass for livestock. Sam Newington has been testing fieldmargin’s Field Health for monitoring pasture health at his organic beef farm in Sussex. He believes that using precision agriculture will improve the quality of his produce and the efficiency of his farm. Read more here. 

Drone imagery 

Drone imagery can be used to have a closer look at the pasture quality. Using the imagery you can show different states and transitions on the land in greater detail. Using fieldmargins integration with Drone Deploy you can easily view drone imagery during the growing season. You can use this imagery to assess available biomass. Some of our users use the drones to check on herd locations and to make sure all are accounted for. 

Try today

Let us know what you think about fieldmargin. We love talking to agriculture and software enthusiasts. Send us your feedback or questions by emailing support@fieldmargin.com or by phoning us on +44 203 289 4200. 

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