Knowledge Exchange & Farmer Clusters
Knowledge Exchange: For Advisers & Agents
What Knowledge Exchange changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. Farmer-to-farmer knowledge transfer is the most trusted route to practice change and the least systematically captured. This module runs discussion groups, demonstration events, farmer clusters and benchmarking clubs, and — critically — pools anonymised platform data so a group can compare real outcomes rather than recollections.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Funder
Knowledge transfer programme
Needs evidence of practice change, not attendance counts.
- Form the group and define objectives
- Recruit members and set data-sharing consent
- Establish anonymised benchmarking pools
- Meet, demonstrate and discuss
Demonstration farm host
Open days
Needs visitor management and results presentation.
- Recruit members and set data-sharing consent
- Establish anonymised benchmarking pools
- Meet, demonstrate and discuss
- Coordinate trials and landscape actions
Discussion group member
Monthly meetings
Needs comparable numbers, not anecdote.
- Establish anonymised benchmarking pools
- Meet, demonstrate and discuss
- Coordinate trials and landscape actions
- Pool and compare results honestly
End to end
How Knowledge Exchange 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
Form the group and define objectives
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Recruit members and set data-sharing consent
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Establish anonymised benchmarking pools
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Meet, demonstrate and discuss
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Coordinate trials and landscape actions
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Pool and compare results honestly
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Report impact to funders
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
Adapt objectives on evidence
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
Capabilities
What Knowledge Exchange 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
- Group and cluster management with membership, geography and objectives
- Meeting and demonstration event scheduling with attendance recording
- Anonymised benchmarking pools across group members
Operate and monitor
- Practice trial coordination across multiple holdings
- Facilitation fund application and reporting support
- Landscape-scale action coordination across neighbouring holdings
Comply and evidence
- Shared monitoring protocols with pooled results
- Discussion topics with structured outcomes and follow-up actions
- Demonstration farm hosting with visitor management
Analyse and improve
- Knowledge resource library curated by the group
- Peer review of practice changes with honest outcome reporting
- Impact reporting for funders and facilitators
Work
Roles on UK holdings
Permanent, seasonal and contract work, with the pay basis and the statutory position stated plainly — including where the Seasonal Worker visa route applies and what it obliges an employer to do.
| Role | Type | Pay basis | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Herdsperson | Permanent | Salary | Accommodation often part of the package; the offset rules are specific. |
| Tractor driver | Seasonal | Hourly | Working time and rest break rules apply during harvest. |
| Harvest operative | Seasonal | Hourly | Seasonal Worker visa route where applicable. |
| Agronomy assistant | Permanent | Salary | BASIS training usually expected within the first year. |
| Relief milker | Contract | Per milking | Self-employed status must be genuine; the tests are strict. |
| Farm secretary | Part time | Hourly | Often shared across several holdings. |
What an employer has to do
- National Minimum and Living Wage Rates change each April. Accommodation offset is capped and counts toward the calculation.
- Agricultural Wages Order Still in force in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with different grades and rates in each.
- Right to work checks Required before the first day, with a statutory excuse only if done correctly.
- Employer's liability insurance Compulsory, and the certificate must be accessible to employees.
- Gangmaster licensing Required for labour providers in agriculture; using an unlicensed provider is an offence.
Worked example
How a business like yours would use Knowledge Exchange
The problem: Needs coordinated action and pooled evidence for funders.
What they do
- Form the group and define objectives
- Recruit members and set data-sharing consent
- Establish anonymised benchmarking pools
- Meet, demonstrate and discuss
What changes
- Active members
- Practice changes adopted
- Coordinated hectares
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
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.
- 01Active members
- 02Practice changes adopted
- 03Coordinated hectares
- 04Benchmark participation rate
- 05Measured outcome improvement
See it working
Book a demonstration on your own holding data
Thirty minutes, using your parcels and your schemes rather than a sample farm, so you can judge it on your own numbers.