Field Notebook: a powerful tool to manage the traceability of your crops

A few weeks ago, we spoke about basic items farmers have to know if they want to avoid having problems with the CAP. On his ocassion, we are going to comment another important concept which is mandatory since 2013 for all farmers: “Field Notebook”. Farmers have to use a tool to manage the traceability of their crops.

Until some years ago, we used a simple excel file or word document to manage our farm where we registered some activities done (we wouldn't like to remember how our father or his generation registered the traceability of their works: costs, profits,... maybe, they didn't do it). The time has changed and farmers have to manage a real business so they need tools that allow them to do it easily (make decisions based on your crops information, view your parcels displayed on the map, register your actions in a few minutes, manage your farms and field notebooks in one place,...).

We know several tools for that. We have used Cropti tool... we think it is really good. We have met with Eugenio (he is the manager and founder of Cropti) in farm fairs,talking shows about agriculture,... and he encouraged us to use it (we have a trial version). It is really easy and very intuitive tool (besides, it has an assistance centre to answer any questions). We had to present our field notebook in local agriculture office and Cropti tool was really useful for us.

Regarding  the tool, you have to create your fields and registre your machinery. After that, you can make a registre about your activity performed in your farm (tillage, fertilizer, irrigation, phytosanitary treatments,...). You can manage your harvesting so you can know your profits easily and you can identify what fields are more productive and what crops are the best for your farm. You can see a complete features list from here. Without a doubt, this is a tool that helps you in your day to day.

You can know the prices from here. Choose the license that best fits your agrobusinesses conditions.

Versión en español.

New farming machinery sales in 2016 in Spain

Every year, we publish information about new farming machinery sales in Spain since 2012 (2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015). The Ministry Agriculture published this information a few days ago (you have all information from here)... our intention is to speak about the most interesting data. Besides, you can see this information for 2017 from here.

Firstly, the total of new tractors sold continues rising. Since 2012 the amount has not stopped growing, the last year reached 11,428 new tractors. This amount is incredibly lower than the amount of second hand tractors sold, what represents 27,372 units (26,526 in 2015 and 26,304 in 2014).

Sales by brands are still led by John Deere (2,688 tractors in 2016, 2,661 in 2015 and 2,590 in 2014) and New Holland (2,067 tractors in 2016, 1,933 in 2015 and 1,935 in 2014). Regarding sales by Group, CNH is the winner (2,882 tractors in 2016, 2,719 in 2015 and 2,699 in 2014). Also, another interesting fact is the best-selling brand by average power: Claas is the winner in 2016 (165HP/tractor). However, Fendt was the number one in 2015 (170.2 HP/tractor) and 2014 (184 HP/tractor). You have more information bellow:

The best-selling tractor was the New Holland T4.95 with 295 units (it was the winner in 2015 too with 309 units sold). Another model most popular was the New Holland T4.105 with 236 units sold (we have added all its versions). Afther that, they are the John Deere 6110 MC (234 units), the John Deere 5100 M (189 units) and the John Deere 5100 G with 184 units (F and N versions).

Regarding new farming machinery sales in 2016, we would like to show you a chart where you can see monthly sales. You have data about tractors, trailers, tillage machinery, seed drills, mowers or harvesting machinery, etc…. We would like to mention that a total amount of 33,950 new machines were sold. More data to highlight about new farming machinery sales are the following ones:

• New trailers sales:  5,061 units in 2016, 5,147 units in 2015, 5,251 units in 2014 and 5,570 units in 2013.
• About trailed or mounted machinery:
• Soil tillage machinery: 2,151 units in 2016, 2,673 units in 2015 and 2,378 in 2014.
• Seed drills machinery: 622 units in 2016, 783 units in 2015 and 692 in 2014.
• Crop protection machinery: 8,094 units in 2016, 5,752 units in 2015 and 4,754 units in 2014.
• Spreaders and felitizing machinery: 2,001 units in 2016, 2.115 units in 2015 and 2,189 units in 2014.
• Harvesters’ machinery: 1,750 units in 2016, 1,989 units in 2015 and 1,939 units in 2014.

New combines harvesters sold last year have a special mention. In 2016 only 304 units were sold (while the previous years the data are: 310 units in 2015 and 360 unit in 2014), the winner is still Claas (103 units). We would like to highlight Massey Ferguson began to sell combines harvesters in Spain during last year.

Now, we are going to speak about automotive grape harvesters that have an ascending line too. 96 units were sold in 2016 (while 67 units were sold in 2015 and 94 units in 2014). The leader is New Holland again with 60.42% of market rate. About trailed grape harvesters the units sold were 77; this market is practically monopolized by Pellenc with 67 units sold.

You have more details on www.masquemaquina.com blog.

Finally, as always we show you pictures of real jobs, this time we would like to show you a few pictures of the new Ángel Belenguer's tractor. He bought a New Holland T6.120 Classic a few weeks ago... we like it so much!! It has a comfortable cabin, great agility in headlands and reduced consumption.

Versión en español.

Rabbits. How can rabbits be prevented from eating a whole field?

​One of the most important problems we have encountered​ ​in some fields is the appearance of rabbits because they are eating our barley. It is an important pest that doe​s​n't let barley or wheat grow; therefore, rabbits are producing us important losses.

It is a really common problem in our area and generally in Spain. Besides, it is very complicated or impossible to solve in most cases. Sometimes, you can install a small fence to avoid (it is not 100% effective) rabbits encroach and eat a whole field. We have installed a fence on the border of one field where we have a serious problem with rabbits.

The configuration of our fence is:

• Corrugated iron stake of 12mm thick and 1.2 meters height. Price: 0.69 €/m
• Stake of angle of 30 mm width and  1,5 meters height. Price: 1.8 €/m
• Metallic mesh of 1 meter height and 0.8mm thick (rolls of 50 meters). Price: 0.52 €/m

We used a subsoiler to fix metallic mesh. It allows us to fix it at 30cm deep in order to avoid rabbits go across under metallic mesh. After that, corrugated iron stakes are fixing between 5 meters and angle stake are installed every 5 stakes of corrugated iron stake (25 meters)... this will give more force to the fence along the 300 meters that we have installed.

As you can see in our pictures, some leaves of our barley were eaten. We hope barley can produce new shoots... we are going to speak about that in a few months again.

Versión en español.