Nutrient Management Plans
Make the most of the records you have to keep to inform nutrient applications with tailored software
Since the introduction of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones(NVZ) and cross compliance, Nutrient Management Plans (NMP) have entered the farming vocabulary. Many farmers have turned to agronomists and advisers for help in making sure that all their paperwork is in order. But, according to GrowHow advice support manager John Scott, "Nutrient Management Plans should be about far more than regulatory compliance."
Mr Scott has been instrumental in supporting and progressing the development of the company's nutrient management software EnCompass. "It's a product which has evolved over the last decade," he explains.
EnCompass started life as a simple recording system used by GrowHow advisers as an inhouse tool in order to keep track of nutrient requirements and produce simple nutrient
plans for farmers.
Inputting the data into EnCompass takes time but it is well worth the effort
CUSTOMER-LED
"A major step forward in its evolution was when our distributor customers started to ask for something which they could use with their farmers to justify fertiliser requirement and purchase," he explains. "This led to investment in specific tailored software which we have updated regularly ever since."
The latest upgrade has just been completed. This has involved a significant investment and radical change to the platform the system runs on.
"New EnCompass is much more intuitive, quicker and easier to use than the earlier versions.We now have a 21st century product," he claims.
USER FRIENDLY
EnCompass produces all the paperwork farmers need to show good practice and regulatory
compliance, but it does much more than that. "In the new version, we have deliberately highlighted the practical side of the system and in particular the fertiliser spreading report. These operator instruction sheets have been designed to help farmers make sure fertilisers are spread in the right place, at the right rate and the best time.
Unlike other products on the market, EnCompass is specialist nutrient management software. Mr Scott continues: "This is why we only give access to FACTS-qualified advisers and why we run regular trainings sessions. It is a tool to help and assist advisers, not a replacement for them, so there's a lot more to it than just plugging in a few numbers and getting a standard recommendation."
This means that the recommendations it produces are not just a computerised version of
the current or future RB209. There's plenty of scope to personalise, adapt and refine the
recommendations to take account of, for example, soil nitrogen supply, varietal improvements, local knowledge, field history and so on. "In short, EnCompass produces a tailor-made recommendation for the farm, not just what you can and cannot do within compliance requirements."
EnCompass is a product which has deliberately never been mass-marketed, but with
the new user-friendly platform, the company feels the program will be much more in demand.
GIVE IT A TRIAL
"We are planning to offer advisers the chance to set up a few farms on the system and try it out. If they like it they will then be asked to pay the license fee for continued access. It is only by using the software that you can begin to understand just how useful it is. For this reason we are confident that many more agronomists and advisers will want to have access," he says.
One of the new developments has been to create a 'super-user' facility. Superusers will be experienced EnCompass-trained advisers who will be given access to their colleagues' records to provide support and guidance to less experienced users within their companies. "We also see the potential for super-user groups to be created to support farmers who are interested in using the software themselves."
Another enhancement is the addition of templates. These provide a selection of example
recommendations for standard cropping situations so that users do not have to create
everything from scratch. This will help to speed up the EnCompass experience.
Advisers and farmers interested in finding out more about the EnCompass program should email john.scott@growhow.co.uk or come along to the GrowHow stand at Cereals 2010 in June.
ENCOMPASS:
- Maximises crop yield and quality by targeting inputs to plant requirements and crop potential.
- Generates accurate field and farm records for cross compliance, NVZs, traceability, crop assurance and environmental stewardship schemes.
- Provides detailed Field Operator Sheets so that the spreader operator knows exactly what needs to be applied, where and when.
- Is recognised and reviewed annually by the Environment Agency.
- Modules also available to create Manure Management Plans or Risk Assessment for Scotland.
GrowHow John Scott says that Nutrient Management Plans should be as much about efficient and effective fertiliser use as regulatory compliance.
Reproduced by kind permission of Farm Business Agronomist
