Farm software offers complete end-to-end system

As farmers face more difficulties than ever before, Live Farmer can help increase profit margins, avoid paperwork chaos and save time and money, explains Steve.

Live Farmer is a cloud-based software company offering end-to-end farm management for the fresh produce sector.

It plots and maps out fields, calculates areas and covers inventory of stock, seeds and crop inputs.

There are tasks within the system for cultivation, planting, crop work, irrigation and harvest – which can be used to capture costs of machinery, implements, people, seeds, chemicals and fertiliser.

The system also deals with compliance for applying pesticides and herbicides.

Live Farmer managing director Steve Bradstock says: “We can effectively trace a packed product back to the field it was grown in, the batch of seeds that was used and everything that’s been done to that crop before and after it was planted.

“We follow the product through packing, production, dispatch, sales and invoicing. So it’s a complete end-to-end, traceability, compliance, mass balance, stock control and people management system.”

Software for fresh produce crops

Live Farmer specialises in managing fresh produce crops, ensuring they are planted on time to meet demand, and managing short grow times and yield expectancy via crop walking, chemical application regulations, safe harvest dates, plus pre- and post-harvest assessments.

It’s modular so you can use the parts you need – some use it just for irrigation, others for quality control and assurance, or health and safety.

Pricing is based on an implementation fee and then a subscription, per user per month. It’s available on Apple, Android and via a web browser.

A wholesaling product is also available, which is the back-end of Live Farmer and used by traders, farm shops etc.

The USP of this product is that it’s a back-end inventory/traceability linked to a web-facing front-end; you can assess products daily and publish exactly what the buyer sees on their ‘Buyers App’ or what you choose to publish on your website.

All deliveries and e-commerce functions are built in.

New tech developments

Live Farmer is an ever-evolving product, the latest additions are virtual weather stations linked to the Met Office.

“Rather than having a physical weather station, you can put an XY co-ordinate into the system and it’ll generate a weather station, and then go collect the data from the Met Office,” Steve explains.

Additionally, with John Deere’s Green Star system, Live Farmer can pick information and maps from tractors and machines.

Other new features include AI-based order capture for the sales side. Orders can be taken via speech, WhatsApp, SMS, emails, PDF or Excel, or any other format can be translated into orders.

There’s also an AI farming model going through production currently. “It’ll take all of your historical data and analyse the best thing to do currently with your current crops based upon fertiliser applications, weather conditions, soil conditions, varieties etc.”

Additionally, the company is developing software for one of the latest robot arms from China, which, again, is an artificially intelligent system with a built-in camera.

It’s so far been programmed to pick apples. “In let’s say, a 12ft sq area, the arm can visually look around, spot the apple that is of the right quality, size, colour, etc and reach out and grab it.

“If you’re using a moving conveyor, when the box drops below a certain position in the conveyor, it’ll drop it into the box,” explains Steve.

The next challenges are bunching coriander and harvesting whole-head broccoli and cabbage. This capability should be available in Q3 this year.

Sub-nano particle fertilisers

Whilst the software is the main backbone of Live Farmer’s business, it also offers the Revolution 5 range of sub-nano particle fertilisers.

Sub-nano is 1/100,000^th of the width of a human hair which allows you to spray the fertiliser, diluted in water onto a crop and the nutritional elements will go straight through the cell walls of the plant, rather than being taken up through the roots.

When fertiliser is sprayed or put onto the soil in granular format, around 80% is wastage, Steve says.

With Revolution 5, you should be saving about nine tenths of your current fertiliser application volume, which has significant cost and sustainability benefits.

Practically no nitrogen is being leached into waterways.

This fertiliser will allow UK farmers to meet sustainability targets and reduce their annual bills whilst producing healthier plants and improving yields.

Read more on www.livefarmer.co.uk and www.rev5.ag.

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