Ben Cannon is the 4th generation to take the reins at Hyde Hall – a 250ha farm comprising of 200ha of arable land, 25ha of woodland and some grassland which gets rented out for cattle grazing. On top of this, he farms another 600ha across four other local farms under contract farming agreements. This gives him a ‘critical mass acreage’ for efficient farming which optimises use of one combine and allows him to maintain an up-to-date fleet of machinery.
On top of the farming enterprise Ben, alongside wife Fiona, have found opportunities to diversify the farm business and have converted old farm buildings into commercial lets, started a fencing contracting business and found space for the local clay pigeon shooting club and dog trainers to practice.
Having used various different farm software in the past, Ben found they all had the same problems – they were cumbersome, over-complicated and clunky. So, when neighbouring farmer Mark, founder of fieldmargin, was thinking of creating his own platform, Ben stressed that the single most important thing it needed to be was simple to use.
“I upload the jobs and the team just get on with it”
Ben now uses fieldmargin as his day-to-day farm record-keeping tool of choice. He uploads all the field work which needs carrying out such as seed, fertiliser and spray applications as Field Jobs so his team can see what jobs need doing and when. As the team carry out the work assigned to them they can then mark it as complete as they go, logging the date, time and weather conditions to create solid field work records that are compliant with the assurance schemes they participate in.
During harvest, Ben uses fieldmargin in conjunction with another software that uses an iPad in the cab to provide information on grain quality and yield. By creating harvesting Field Jobs prior to harvest, the team can tick fields off as they go and the yield data captured in the combine is entered as the output.
Introducing fieldmargin to the Hyde Hall team
From previous experience with other farm software Ben knew there is often a resistance to change; “farmers, traditionally, are very slow to uptake [new systems] and particularly don’t like change as a general rule”. To add to this the farm team’s ages range from early 20s to 60s. However, getting to grips with fieldmargin hasn’t been a problem at Hyde Hall. Ben commended the user-friendliness of the app which has allowed the whole team to pick up fieldmargin quickly.
“Just tick, tick, tick. It’s very user-friendly”
Farm assurance and compliance
The farm is assured by Red Tractor, meaning Ben has to keep accurate and detailed records as evidence of compliance. Previously, records were mostly paper-based, which are prone to getting lost or stuffed down the back of the tractor seat never to be seen again. This meant that when inspections came around they would need to hunt through files to find the relevant documentation. Now that all field work is recorded in fieldmargin and the team are filling out the completion information as they go, farm inspections are a breeze.
All the information that the auditor needs can be bought up on the phone or laptop, or exported to provide copies to the inspector in advance of their visit.
Tracking farm performance
Using the web app, Ben enters input prices so he can keep an eye on costs throughout the growing season. Across the year, he refers to the gross margins report to get a quick snapshot of spending. Post-harvest, he will enter an estimated selling price for each output and add these in to get a gross margin at field level or by crop type. He can then compare internally to see how different fields or crops have performed.
“It’s real time, you know exactly what your gross margin is for the year”
The gross margin reporting has been helpful on the contracting side of the business as Ben can pull up the report and show his clients in a visual format what it has cost to grow the crop and how much they’ve made from it. His clients like being able to see the big picture at the end of the year of their farms’ performance which is what the gross margin report delivers.
Environmental schemes
In order to replace the income lost from the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), Ben has entered into multiple schemes such as Countryside Stewardship (CS) and the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). From the options he’s entered into with the SFI scheme, Ben has managed to surpass the amount of income he used to receive from BPS without taking vast areas of the farm out of production.
This was an important consideration when Ben was compiling his application. His philosophy is that he wants to be farming first and foremost to produce food. The only areas he has taken out of production are low-yielding field corners which have gone into the pollen and nectar flower mix option (AHL1).
The “big payers” within the options Ben has implemented across the farm include:
- SAM2: Multi-species winter cover crop, paying £129 per hectare per year
- SOH3: Multi-species summer-sown cover crop, paying £162 per hectare per year
- IPM4: No use of insecticide on arable crops and permanent crops, paying £45 per hectare per year
While Ben has adopted new sustainable farming practices, such as the summer-sown cover crops, to help boost farm income, there are other options which he implemented long before entering the scheme. For instance, he stopped using insecticides nearly a decade ago, finding that their cost outweighed any potential crop benefits – a choice that highlights how sustainable and profitable farming can go hand-in-hand.
Expanding the use of fieldmargin at Hyde Hall
Ben plans to expand his use of fieldmargin to support record-keeping of compliance with environmental schemes, gain a greater understanding of drainage across the land he works on and keep track of machinery servicing and maintenance. For example, he plans to start:
SFI record-keeping
- Writing comments on Field Jobs to provide further details
- Adding photographs to Field Jobs of things such as seed invoices and crop establishment
Drainage
- Digitising drainage maps and adding them as a map layer
- Using these maps to investigate long-term issues discovered over the years
Machinery & building maintenance records
- Mapping Features for other aspects of the farm which require maintenance documentation, e.g. grain stores and machinery
- Adding notes & tasks to these features to track servicing and maintenance
Fieldmargin has helped Ben and his team at Hyde Hall to streamline operations, simplify compliance and manage costs with ease. Despite the farm’s scale and complexity, fieldmargin’s intuitive design has ensured seamless adoption, providing essential insights which support both everyday efficiency and strategic planning for the farm’s diversified business.
Are you interested in using fieldmargin to help streamline your record-keeping? It’s free to make an account and get started.
If you have any questions or need some help getting started, drop us an email to support@fieldmargin.com and someone from our support team will be happy to help.