Precision farming offers proven benefits of more efficient management and better use of inputs, but how do you decide what to invest in … and when? Sentry Farming-managed Windmill Down Farms and Newton Valence Farm are assessing the adoption of variable-rate treatments on land in Hampshire.
Back in January 2016 Windmill Down Farms, based at Hambledon, and Newton Valence Farm, located just outside of Alton, pooled their collective 1,020ha of arable ground into a joint venture with Sentry Farming. Arable manager Jon Fountain explains: All machinery fixed costs and all labour costs go through the joint venture, funded by the two landowners on a percentage of land area basis. This provides each landowner with a clear and true cost of their arable enterprise.”
Each farm remains fully independent in buying and selling inputs and outputs. “Being Sentry-managed gives the business access to all Sentry’s strategic partners and its enhanced buying power. It can also access guidance from a highly skilled team of people with a wealth of experience covering every aspect
of farm business management.”
There is a wide range of soils on the farms, from Hambledon Chalk with a high proportion of flint to wet clay on low lying land and sandy silts — and this variability has led Mr Fountain to invest in technology to treat fields and zones within them variably. Under the previous management, the land had been mapped and zoned using an electro-conductivity scanner, and the final results ‘ground proofed’ by a soil scientist. This was repeated on two more farms. Sentry then worked closely with Soyl, which has used the data to create drilling maps
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