Software and I.T company, Farmplan, and Teagasc have announced a three-year partnership to encourage Teagasc clients to ‘go digital’ with their farm records.
Ben Hatton, key account and field sales manager at Farmplan said: “Teagasc [was] seeking ways to make digitising farm records cost-effective for tillage farmers in Ireland.
“The goal is to make farms more efficient in how farm practices and records are captured and also ensure these records are suitable for cross compliance purposes.
“When we launched Gatekeeper Cloud – our online crop recording tool – Teagasc [was] a natural collaborator to approach.”
Michael Hennessy, head of Crops Knowledge Transfer in Teagasc said: ”Teagasc [is] delighted to partner with Farmplan to offer a farm recording software solution which is suitable for Irish farmers.
“Farmers who utilise this software will be in a position to calculate returns per variety or field or farm and be in a strong position to make changes based on specific areas or across the farm.”
Gatekeeper Cloud aims to save time and improve accuracy on-farm, allowing farmers to set up records and enter data in just a few minutes.
According to the company, being cloud-based, the software can be accessed via a web browser, reducing the cost of entry and reliance on specific hardware.
Digital future
Farmplan has said that whether a farm is reliant on pen and paper or spreadsheets, switching to a digital system brings numerous and immediate benefits.
Collating everything together in one place grants total visibility across the business – which Farmplan said is essential for making more informed and effective decisions.
Another stated benefit is that digital records allow due diligence to be performed quickly and without issue should an inspection occur. In the long-term, these benefits can scale up – with the idea being that the more you put in, the more you get out.
“Teagasc sees huge scope for farmers to increase their use of digital recording, as many farmers were unsure about investing the time in working with a cloud programme which wasn’t suitable for the Irish farm system,” Hennessy continued.
“The outputs will put farmers on the front foot around cross compliance and benchmarking their farm performance.”
Ben Hatton added: “In partnership with Teagasc, we can help tillage farmers transform their farm records and make themselves more commercially sustainable and fit for the future.”