Herdwatch aims to help manage almost 310,000 acres of farmland in Mayo
Herdwatch, a farm software company in Ireland and the UK, is aiming to help manage almost 310,000 acres of farmland in Mayo over the next five years with the release of a new field-focused service. Grass & Crops enables farmers to maintain digital field records and help with grass planting and crop management.
Herdwatch project that by 2028, the service will be used on 309,718 acres across the 11,920 farms based in Mayo. Nationally, the service is expected to cover approximately five million acres over the same period and 10 million worldwide.
The new service was awarded the Enterprise Ireland Farm Software Award at the recent National Ploughing Championships.
Some of the key benefits to farmers of the Grass & Crops service include digital field records being available in a farmer’s pocket at all times; instant access to easy-to-understand soil health data; tracking NPK usage at a field level; high resolution maps to visualise land management plans; tracking of seeding events, crop health and yields; maintaining sprays and fertiliser records so as to manage costs as well as for compliance; and creating field jobs and reminders for upcoming tasks. It can also be used by multiple users, to access multiple holdings, on multiple devices.
Grass & Crops has been in development by Herdwatch for the last year following the recent multi-million investment into the company led by Renatus Capital Partners. It will be available in over 170 countries across the world. This follows the global rollout of Herdwatch’s sheep and goat management solution, Flockwatch, which has already being used in 110 countries, including the United States, Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan and Ukraine.
Over 20,000 farms in Ireland and the UK currently use Herdwatch, making it the largest farm software provider in these markets. An Irish success story, it was co-founded by Fabien Peyaud and FRS Network in 2014.
“We believe Mayo farmers, especially livestock farmers, have been looking for a land management service like Grass & Crops,” said Mr. Peyaud, now CEO of Herdwatch.
He added: “It will help farmers in Mayo, across Ireland and around the world achieve higher grass and crop yields with less inputs while improving soil health and enhancing biodiversity – all within a simple, easy to use app.
“Grass & Crops will enable Mayo farmers to make better decisions and save money on inputs whilst producing more. In addition, the new service will also help farmers meet environmental challenges and stay compliant by measuring both what they put into and take off their fields. This solution will be fully integrated with our existing livestock management solution for cattle, sheep and goats, in the same app. No other land management service like this exists.
“For these reasons we are confident that Mayo farmers will embrace the use of Grass & Crops and we expect it will be used to help manage 310,000 acres of Mayo farmland in the next five years. A lot of farmers in Mayo are already using Herdwatch and this is an additional service they can now make use of for no additional cost.
“Ultimately, farmers are business people and we have seen that many farmers are facing the same problems of a shortage of time or labour as well as considerable challenges from increased prices for key inputs such as fertiliser and fuel. Grass & Crops addresses these issues and we are excited to see it further benefitting our users in Mayo and all around the world.”
The new service is available through the Herdwatch app which can be downloaded in the App Store or at www.herdwatch.com.