'It's the field past the second cattle grid, turn left at the old barn'
A new operator is sent to drill for a customer he has never worked for. The instructions from the office are 'Hill Farm, Big Field and the one next to it'. The customer calls it 'the forty acre'. The farm's own map, if you have one, shows a field boundary from before a hedge was taken out. He finds the farmer on the phone, who gives directions from the village, past the second cattle grid, left at the old barn.
The experienced operators do not need this. They know every customer's fields, the soft corner that swallows tractors, the overhead line in the middle of the silage field, the gateway that the drill will not fit through without taking the markers off. That knowledge is in their heads, and when they leave or are off sick, it goes with them.
Why field knowledge stays in people's heads
Contractors work across dozens or hundreds of farms, and each has its own names and quirks. The information comes to you piece by piece, over years, and there has never been one place to put it.
| What operators need to know | Where it usually comes from |
|---|---|
| Which field is which | The customer's directions, or an old paper map |
| The field boundary and area | The customer's own records, if they share them |
| Where to get in | Experience, or trial and error |
| Hazards such as overhead lines or soft ground | Word of mouth from whoever went last |
| Customer instructions such as no-go areas | A phone call, rarely written down |
Field names clash too. Several customers have a 'Long Field' or a 'Home Field', and a job sheet saying 'Long Field' is only clear if you know which farm is meant. When fields are split or merged, the customer's names change and your knowledge does not.
What wrong fields and missed hazards cost
Work done in the wrong field is the most expensive mistake a contractor can make: a crop sprayed that should not have been, grass cut too early, a field drilled with the wrong seed. The consequences are serious for both sides, and they start with confusion over names.
Hazards are the other side. What your safety arrangements should be is for you and your adviser, not us, but a hazard that only one operator knows about is a hazard the others will meet unprepared. And every new operator's first weeks are slower, because they have to learn every farm from scratch, on the phone to someone who knows.
Shared field maps for every customer
What we build is a shared map of your customers' fields, available on every operator's phone.
- Each customer's fields are drawn with their boundaries, from the customer's own boundary files, shapefiles from their mapping or scheme records, or drawn on a satellite map with the customer or by an operator who knows it.
- Each field has the customer's name for it, your own name if different, the area (measured from the boundary, and the customer's figure if they give one), and the farm it belongs to.
- Entry points are marked: the gateway to use, the one to avoid, and access notes such as 'long machines through the yard, not the lane'.
- Hazards are pinned on the map with notes and photos: overhead lines, soft ground, drains, steep banks, buried services, and anything the customer tells you.
- Customer instructions, such as no-go strips, buffer zones they have told you about or areas not to be cut, are drawn on the map.
- Operators open a job and see the field highlighted, with a route from where they are to the gateway. They can add notes as they learn, which you review before they are shared.
Boundaries can also be exported for guidance systems where the terminal accepts them, which saves drawing the same field twice.
The new operator's first job, done right
The new operator opens the job on his phone: Hill Farm, Big Field, highlighted on the map with the customer's name for it. The route takes him to the right gateway, with a note that the lane is too narrow for the drill with markers down. A pin in the middle of the field shows an overhead line, with a photo. He drills the field without ringing anyone.
When the customer splits the field for a new scheme option, the office updates the boundary once, and everyone sees the change.
Do your operators find fields like this?
- New operators rely on phone directions from customers.
- Several customers have fields with the same names.
- Hazards on customers' farms are known only by the operators who have been there.
- Field boundaries you work from are out of date.
- You have done, or nearly done, work in the wrong field.