Crops & Cultivation
Crop Farming & Precision Agriculture
One cropping record that feeds agronomy, assurance and scheme evidence at once.
Agrivencia holds the whole cropping year — rotation plan, drilling, nutrition, protection, monitoring, harvest and store — as a single field-level record that every other module reads from. The record is built once, in the field, offline if necessary, and is then reused automatically to populate assurance audit packs, scheme evidence, carbon footprints and gross margin analysis rather than being retyped into four different systems.
- 16 capabilities
- 4 linked schemes
- Flagship module
- Offline capable
- 16
- Capabilities in this module
- 7
- Interactive tools
- 4
- Linked support schemes
- 9
- Data integrations
- 6
- Measures reported
The ground reality
What is actually happening in crop farming in the UK
The UK works 17.0 million hectares of utilised agricultural area across roughly 209,000 holdings, and although the average farm is 80 hectares, almost half of all holdings are under 20 hectares. That long tail is exactly the population enterprise crop-recording software has never served well: mid-range packages typically run £300 to £800 a year and are priced and configured for the top decile. Meanwhile the market is consolidating, with the two dominant crop-record products migrating onto one platform, which leaves growers with a migration decision at the same moment the scheme rules underneath them are changing.
Figures are as published at the time of writing. Farm policy and payment rates change frequently — verify against the primary source before relying on any number here.
In the field
Crop farming, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Crop Farming — a walkthrough
A working pass through crop farming: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
Capabilities
What Crop Farming does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Field-level cropping record with full multi-year rotation history and cropping intensity tracking
- Drilling planner with seed rate, thousand grain weight, target plant population and establishment loss allowance
- Variety selection linked to the AHDB Recommended Lists, with disease resistance and regional yield filtering
- Growth stage tracking on the Zadoks and BBCH scales, with photo evidence at each stage
Operate and monitor
- Field operations diary covering cultivations, drilling, applications, mechanical weeding and harvest
- Cost of production ledger by field, by crop and by enterprise, with contractor and own-machinery rates
- Yield mapping ingestion from combine and forage harvester exports, normalised across brands
- Variable rate prescription builder for seed, nutrition and plant growth regulators
Comply and evidence
- Gross margin calculation per field, with a whole-farm roll-up and peer benchmarking
- Weighbridge ticket capture with moisture, specific weight, screenings and admixture against contract spec
- Rotational compliance checks against scheme rules, including rotational action caps
- Offline-first field capture with deferred sync, built for the 78 per cent of rural premises without reliable indoor coverage
Analyse and improve
- Automatic assurance evidence assembly into Red Tractor and LEAF Marque audit packs
- Carbon footprint data collection embedded in the operations record rather than a separate annual exercise
- Cropping plan versioning, so what you intended and what you did are both retained for audit
- Contractor and agronomist seats with scoped, revocable access per holding
Interactive
Tools you actually use, not screens you read
These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.
Field map with switchable layers: soil zones, yield, NDVI, drainage, designations and scheme actions
Field map with switchable layers: soil zones, yield, NDVI, drainage, designations and scheme actions
MapRotation planner
drag crops across a multi-year grid and see break-crop and scheme-rule conflicts flag live
BuilderSeed rate calculator that converts target population and thousand grain weight into kilograms per hectare
Seed rate calculator that converts target population and thousand grain weight into kilograms per hectare
CalculatorGross margin simulator with commodity price and input cost sliders
Gross margin simulator with commodity price and input cost sliders
ToolEstablishment risk model combining drilling date, seedbed condition and forecast
Establishment risk model combining drilling date, seedbed condition and forecast
ToolGrowth stage photo timeline with side-by-side season comparison
Growth stage photo timeline with side-by-side season comparison
ToolYield versus plan variance chart, drillable to field and to sub-field zone
Yield versus plan variance chart, drillable to field and to sub-field zone
ChartEnd to end
How Crop Farming runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Plan the rotation and check scheme and agronomic constraints
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Commit the cropping plan and generate field-level input budgets
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Record drilling with date, variety, seed rate and conditions
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Log in-season operations, observations and applications as they happen
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Monitor with satellite, walked assessments and sensor data
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Harvest, capture weighbridge and store data against contract spec
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Reconcile actual against plan and publish the gross margin
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Export the evidence pack to assurance, scheme and carbon destinations
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Who uses it
Built around four real jobs, not one generic user
Each of these people needs something different from the same record. The module is designed so none of them has to work around the others.
Arable manager, East Anglia
900 ha combinable crops
Wants one place the agronomist, the contractor and the assurance auditor can all be pointed at, without three separate exports.
Mixed farmer, Shropshire
180 ha arable and grassland
Needs the cropping record to feed the scheme claim automatically because there is no office staff to do it twice.
Independent agronomist
40 client holdings
Needs a cross-client view of disease pressure and a defensible written recommendation trail.
Farm business consultant
Benchmarking and budgeting
Needs comparable cost of production figures across clients without re-keying farm accounts.
Schemes and funding
Support schemes this module works with
Agrivencia holds these schemes as data, so eligibility, payment rates, caps and windows update the day they change rather than at the next software release.
Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Pay farmers for environmental actions taken alongside food production, as the principal replacement for area-based direct payments in England.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency EnglandCountryside Stewardship
Fund more complex, targeted and bespoke habitat management than the main incentive offer supports.
Defra / Natural England / Rural Payments Agency EnglandFarming Equipment and Technology Fund
Contribute towards the cost of specified equipment and technology that improves productivity, slurry management or animal health and welfare.
Defra / Rural Payments Agency WalesSustainable Farming Scheme
Replace area-based direct payments in Wales with a scheme rewarding sustainable land management outcomes.
Welsh Government / Rural Payments WalesRates, caps and windows change frequently and sometimes without notice. Always confirm against the current published scheme rules before applying.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Hectares under active management
- 02Operations logged per hectare per season
- 03Percentage of assurance evidence auto-assembled
- 04Yield versus plan variance
- 05Cost of production per tonne
- 06Time to produce an audit pack
Try it now
Crop Gross Margin Calculator
Work out gross margin per hectare for a crop, with the variable costs itemised so you can see where the margin actually goes.
How this is calculated
Crop output equals yield multiplied by price, plus attributed scheme income. Gross margin equals output minus the sum of variable costs. Break-even yield equals total variable costs divided by price.
Gross margin excludes fixed costs, rent, finance and depreciation, so it is not profit. Use enterprise costing for the full picture.
Benchmarking
How this compares with businesses like yours
A cohort is only useful if it is genuinely comparable, so it is built from farm type, soil grade, region and scale rather than from whoever happens to have signed up. Your own figure is never shown to anyone else.
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Hectares under active management
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 23 Median 53 Upper quartile 82
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Operations logged per hectare per season
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 27 Median 57 Upper quartile 72
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Percentage of assurance evidence auto-assembled
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 40 Median 60 Upper quartile 78
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Yield versus plan variance
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 25 Median 62 Upper quartile 77
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Cost of production per tonne
Your figure appears hereLower quartile 26 Median 50 Upper quartile 80
How the cohort is built
- Farm type
- Matched
- Soil grade
- Matched
- Region
- Matched
- Scale band
- Matched
- Cohort size
- Minimum 12 businesses, or no comparison is shown
Obligation calendar
What crop farming asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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February 1 entry
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6 February: Commit the cropping plan and generate field-level input budgets
A recurring step in crop farming.
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April 3 entries
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13 April: Plan the rotation and check scheme and agronomic constraints
A recurring step in crop farming.
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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23 April: Log in-season operations, observations and applications as they happen
A recurring step in crop farming.
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May 1 entry
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26 May: Sustainable Farming Scheme
Scheme year runs to 31 December, with the single application form deadline in mid-May.
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June 2 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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August 1 entry
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23 August: Record drilling with date, variety, seed rate and conditions
A recurring step in crop farming.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 2 entries
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Questions answered
What people ask about Crop Farming
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Crop Farming is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Rural connectivity gaps. Mitigated by offline-first capture and deferred sync. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
Documents
Take it away with you
Everything here is printable and works on a kitchen table with no signal. Where a document asks for an email address, it says so on the button rather than after you press it.
The Cropping Record That Passes Every Audit: A UK Grower's Handbook
The practical handbook for crop farming: what the rules require, what the evidence has to show, and the mistakes that cost people money.
crop farming — evidence checklist
Every document an audit or a claim asks for, in the order it is asked for, with the validity period of each.
crop farming — record template
The record structure the module uses, as a spreadsheet, so a business not yet on the platform can start keeping it correctly today.
Data model reference
Entities, fields and integration points for crop farming, for advisers and software partners.
See Crop Farming running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours