Hutchinsons: Digital tools drive more profitable and sustainable farming future

The Omnia EasyPlan upgrade represents a major digital leap forward in crop production, which confirms Omnia as the most advanced and easy-to-use farm management system, Hutchinsons said.

Since its launch as a precision mapping system eight years ago, with its user-friendly interface and unparalleled functionality, the platform has evolved into a broader digital farming system offering a range of valuable and user-friendly business modules such as cost of production, yield mapping, rotational planning and carbon mapping tools.

The EasyPlan upgrade takes this one step further and underlines Hutchinsons’ focus on innovation and excellence and unwavering commitment and vision for Omnia.

Offering a set of developments allowing for complete paperless record keeping and work management, this new standard for farm management technology in the UK is now available to both Hutchinsons and non-Hutchinsons customers alike.

EasyPlan Upgrade offer

Field Diary module: A significant extension of current Field Diary into a fully comprehensive farm management system.

Stock management: The addition of real-time stock management. The upgraded module allows for a real-time, feature rich, stock management system for keeping track of orders and physical inventory based on what is actually being used.

Spray Plan module: A completely new module, which allows users to create spray plans which are then audited by Hutchinsons bespoke HALO crop protection database.

Omnia with the EasyPlan upgrade will be available within the current Field Manager and Business Manager subscription levels, with Business Manager being required for the HALO auditing functionality.

For those that are new to Omnia, the free access account allows farmers to experience some limited functionality, including annual cropping plans, farm maps and visualising yield data.

LAMMA 2025 participants have been invited to come and speak to the Omnia team to find out how this system designed for British growers can be used on your farm.

Examine grant funding options

It is important to remember that success in any agri environment scheme comes from fitting the scheme around the farm rather than the farm around the scheme and being realistic with desired outcomes, Hutchinsons farm business consultant, Will Foyle, said.

Mr Foyle urges farmers to make the most of any funding while it is available, and stresses the importance of selecting options that are right for the business and supported or improved productivity.

He added: “The direction of travel is very much on farming with the environment, but use the SFI, and any other grant funding to your advantage, considering how it best fits with your own farm.

“A good starting point is to use Omnia to examine variations in the cost of production on an individual field basis to identify any sub-marginal land that needed improving or may be better put to other uses.”

The arable expert also highlighted the impact of varying winter wheat yield from 9 t/ha to 6.5 t/ha, which, in one example, resulted in an increase in the cost of production from £144/t to £187/t.

“If there are parts of a field that are regularly losing you money over different seasons and crops , address that first. There might be ways to rectify the issues, or if not, consider other options, such as the SFI.

“The important thing is to do what’s right for your business,” Mr Foyle continued.

Great support for farmers

Hutchinsons’ environmental experts will be on hand during LAMMA to discuss these topics and advise how to use the latest functionality added to Omnia which is designed to support farmers in efficiently managing and recording Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) actions.

Through the new functionality, it is now possible to add Land Use Options as well as Crop Use and Management Use Options into Omnia, which simplifies farm management and supports the overall efficiency of farming activities as there is no need for multiple platforms.

The new functionality makes it easier for farmers to stay compliant with SFI requirements from the RPA by generating Yearly Reports.

It also works for those needing to produce compliance reports for the food chain, as reports can be easily accessed through the Field Diary, as and when required.

Visit the Hutchinsons stand at LAMMA where industry leading experts will be on hand to discuss any or all services and technologies.

Stand number: Hall 10, Stand 720.

Learn more about Omnia here

Read more farm business news