Benchmarking questions:
Benchmarking is a powerful management tool that allows you to measure your farm’s performance and compare results against previous performance, similar farms and industry averages.
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurable metric that helps farmers track and evaluate their operational, financial and environmental performance to achieve business goals
IT support is currently available through Farming Connect. Either contact your local Development Officer or click on this link to find out more.
FARMDATA+ questions
Access to FARMDATA+ is through the Farming Connect website, under the Benchmarking section. You will need to have completed your RPW One login and be registered with Farming Connect to access the tool.
There are 7 core sectors currently included in the tool, they are:
- Arable
- Beef
- Dairy
- Horticulture
- Pigs
- Poultry
- Sheep
We are looking at developing the tool to include other sectors.
If your sector is not selectable on the list, either the sector is not available in the tool yet, or your selection of sectors within RPW is incorrect. Go back to RPW and check your sector selection, then return to the tool to continue.
The current KPIs available in the tool are below. We will be developing new KPIs in the future, and recommendations are always helpful, please share these with your local Development officer.
Arable:
- use of insecticides £/ha
- use of herbicides £/ha
- fertiliser costs £/ha
- nitrogen use kgN/ha
- yield t/ha for grains and oil seed rape
- yield t/ha for potatoes
Beef:
- suckler herd replacement rate
- suckler cows and heifers calved in first six weeks %
- calving interval
- suckler cow age at first calving
- daily liveweight gain (DLWG) - beef finishing
- daily liveweight gain (DLWG) - growing stores
- calf daily liveweight gain (DLWG) at 200 days
- concentrate use kg/head - beef finishing
- cattle age at slaughter
- number of calves reared per cow
- cow mortality %
Dairy:
- cow pregnancy rate %
- calving interval
- % calved in first six weeks
- stocking rate for dairy per hectare
- cow - total purchased feed cost pence per litre (ppl)
- dairy cow concentrate use kg/l
- dairy herd replacement rate
- heifer - age at first calving
- average milk protein %
- milk produced litres/cow/year
Horticulture:
- volume per metre2
- sales value per metre2
- gross profit margin
- water consumption (litres)
Pigs:
- pig - finisher Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
- pig - Daily Liveweight Gain (DLWG) weaning to finishing g/day
- piglet weaning age (days)
- litters per sow per year
- sow replacement rate %
Poultry:
- broilers - Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
- layers - feed intake g/bird/day
- layers - vet & med costs pence/bird
- broilers - vet & med costs pence/bird
- bird cumulative mortality %
- % first quality eggs
- eggs per bird housed
Sheep:
- stocking rate for sheep/ha
- lamb losses - scanning to reared (as a % of lambs scanned)
- ewe scanning %
- purchased feed £/head - breeding ewes
- purchased feed £/head - purchased store lambs
- lamb concentrate use per head
- vet & med £/head - breeding ewes
- lamb rearing %
- mortality % - lambs purchase to sale
- Daily Liveweight Gain (DLWG) - purchase to finish
- Lamb Daily Liveweight Gain (DLWG) - birth to sale
- ewe mortality rate
Whole farm categories
Environmental:
- km of hedges older than 30 yrs
- km of hedges younger than 30 yrs
- on farm woodland type %
- standard soil analysis
- soil organic matter and carbon analysis
- earthworm numbers in grassland soils
- earthworm numbers in cropping soils
- Visual Evaluation of Soil Structure (VESS)
- % of semi-natural habitat on farm
- % of cover crops
Farm overview:
- profit per hectare (before rent and finance)
- profit per hectare (before fent and finance) - other farm type
- profit per hours worked
- proportional analysis of accounts: % of turnover spent on variable costs
- paid labour £/ha
- paid labour £/ha - other farm type
- power and machinery £/ha
- power and machinery £/ha - other farm type
- repairs / maintenance of land & buildings £/ha
- repairs / maintenance of land & buildings £/ha - other farm type
- machinery depreciation
- machinery depreciation - other farm type
- building depreciation £/ha
- building depreciation £/ha - other farm type
- cost of variables £/ha
- cost of variables £/ha - other farm type
Forage:
- fertiliser cost £/ha for grass and maize
- spray cost £/ha
- full forage gross margin £/ha
- artificial nitrogen use kgN/ha on forage
- grazing grass production tonnes (t)/ha
- maize yield t/ha
- grazing rotations per year
- hectares under herbal leys or protein crops
No there is no app, however the tool is still accessible from your mobile phone by following the link from the Farming Connect website or clicking here.
Yes, the tool is compatible with all screen sizes including laptops, tablets and mobile phones.
Within RPW Online, you will need to make sure that you are setup in the correct role within the business and the ‘FARMDATA+’ box has been ticked to allow access to the tool. You will need to contact the businesses GOV.UK One login administrator to get this setup for you. (check if ok to use with RPW)
Sustainable farming scheme (SFS) questions:
The requirement for Benchmarking using FARMDATA+ is to complete 2x KPIs per sector and 1x Whole farm KPI. You can read more information on this here.
All businesses must complete a minimum of 3 KPIs annually. If you do not own or keep livestock or grow crops, you must complete 3 whole farm KPIs.
Currently all KPIs within the tool are accepted for UA3 of the SFS. The list of these can be found in Annex 3 of the scheme description.
All KPIs will need to be completed and submitted to RPW through the tool by 31st December to comply with SFS guidance.
No, only the KPIs you choose to “Submit for SFS” are shared with RPW. While there is no maximum limited to the number submitted, it is important that the minimum number required for SFS are submitted by the deadline of 31st December
KPI titles, the individual KPI identifiers and the date submitted are the only information shared with RPW, none of a farmers own inputted data will be shared.
You can submit as many KPIs as you wish to RPW for SFS. Once you have completed the required 2x KPI per sector and 1x Whole farm KPI, the SFS dashboard will be updated and UA3 shown as being complete. Remember no data is transferred across, so the titles and unique identifiers of the KPIs you have submitted will just sit behind the Dashboard.