Digital platform Omnia has launched a significant new feature in direct response to requests from its user base.
‘Farm Entity’ has been designed for farming businesses managing multiple enterprises within a single Omnia account or holding, and provides the ability to treat those enterprises as separate trading entities.
Chris Hoskins, digital services manager at Hutchinsons, says the update has been designed with contracting businesses or those with multiple farming agreements in mind, who might want to segregate each part within one Omnia holding or account.
“It’s all about increasing the flexibility to manage these businesses individually within Omnia, but still under one larger umbrella account or holding,” he adds.
Previously, fields and field groups within Omnia were held under a single business or holding. While it was possible to filter out maps and reports, no management actions could be linked to individual businesses held within that account, explains Chris.
“So for example, anything compliance-related logged in Omnia was attributed across all businesses in the account — a significant limitation for those operating multiple farming agreements. Farm Entity changes that – individual fields can now be assigned to specific field groups, allowing each to be managed as a distinct trading entity.”
Per-business application
Chris outlines several situations where the new functionality will prove particularly valuable. For livestock enterprises running manure management plans, N-max audits can now be attributed at individual farm level rather than across the whole holding. A single Omnia account can hold two or three completely separate audits for different businesses simultaneously.
Then, for arable businesses with significant areas of rented ground moving in and out of rotation. For example where potatoes are in the mix — a dedicated farm such as ‘rented’ can be created within Omnia and fields can be added or removed from the grouping as circumstances change. Management actions can be applied to those fields as and when relevant.
Stock control benefits
The functionality also brings meaningful benefits for stock control. Fields can be assigned to farms and linked to specific stock centres, so where multiple stores of fertiliser or crop protection products are assigned to different farming agreements, Omnia will automatically draw stock from the correct store for the relevant fields and keep records up to date.
A simple toggle on/off feature for displaying relevant fields across any of the map view modules adds further practical value, making this a significant upgrade for stock management and day-to-day farm record keeping.
Simple set up
Despite the breadth of its application, the feature is straightforward to activate, suggests Chris. “It doesn’t require extra support — it’s just a switch. However, the Omnia support team is ready to answer any questions should they arise.”
Farm Entity is also fully recognised within the Scout app, meaning it can be accessed and managed on the move.
