Gatekeeper

[Jetemp]

Does any one know the costs associated with buying gatekeeper and the annual charges associated.

I would need precision farming modules and web apps.

I could phone them but last time I did I never really got a straight answer and all they wanted to do was come and see me to give me a demo!

Thanks
James

 

[ploughman1963]

around £1500 (?) with mapping and another £450 (?) annual service charge - I think

 

[Jetemp]

Thanks @ploughman1963,
Regular users might be able to help me. We run a central spray store for approximately 10 of our contracting customers, they all get invoiced for that cut all amount of product used rather than having half pots of product left on each farm etc.

Would gatekeeper be capable of the administration with the click of a few a buttons, would it be capable of keeping total stocks in the spray store and values? Obviously reducing as they are applied to various customers crops. Would it then be able to create a value for the product applied to each customers crops? I would need to create financial reports on a monthly basis, is it capable??

James

 

[ploughman1963]

I am not yet fully conversant but from what I have seen so far, yes

 

[Flintstone]

It will, but so will other software systems at a fraction of the cost.

 

[Jetemp]

@Flintstone what else would you suggest, gatekeeper could bring other things to the equation as well?

James

 

[Banana Bar]

Thanks @ploughman1963,
Regular users might be able to help me. We run a central spray store for approximately 10 of our contracting customers, they all get invoiced for that cut all amount of product used rather than having half pots of product left on each farm etc.

Would gatekeeper be capable of the administration with the click of a few a buttons, would it be capable of keeping total stocks in the spray store and values? Obviously reducing as they are applied to various customers crops. Would it then be able to create a value for the product applied to each customers crops? I would need to create financial reports on a monthly basis, is it capable??

James

Yes, all of those things. It's a mighty powerful programme and we have two users, I have someone in the office who does all of the stock side and I do all the rest. I guess it's no different to any system but keeping stock correct with several clients is difficult (we operate in the same way as you).

BB

 

[AlfM]

Not quite sure what you're after but I use it a few ways with stock. We have the main farm which buys in stock and uses it. Then we have one contract/share farm who buys and uses his own stock. Then we have several other contract/share farms who use stock from our main store and get billed quarterly or whenever we remember.
From Gatekeeper point of view we have one main site, and 2 additional ones. Main being us, 1 additional is the one who buys his own, and all the rest are lumped into another additional. I trade stock between each of the 3 stores to avoid too many part cans.
Costs are bonkers and although I can't remember what it cost me as it was years ago the initial costs can be found on the Farmplan website. Yearly costs are £196 for the main site and £30 each for the other two. £106 for web grower. £97 for farm mapping. £97 for JD support. £23 for Bing maps. £72 for remote data secure. If you are non JD you need PF actual and PF target which are £97/year each on top.
I know......

 

[Flintstone]

I don't know how they can justify that £700 annual cost, especially after charging £1500 at the start, too!!

 

[Wombat]

The annual cost for me is the reason I may change, only small with a couple of hundred acres and the cost is the same so it works out quite expensive per acre

 

[B R C]

So if you have three arable units, financially separate but physically managed as one entity what are the options for not spending 1000's, FarmFlo?

 

[Clive]

long time since I bought it but support for a very full package inc mapping and PF for 2 users is over £1200 / year

its not cheap but there is nothing else that can do all it can

It's way more than most farm businesses need though, most use others to do the PF stuff and its ability to handle multiple farms and stock sites etc is only really needed if you are contract farming etc IMO

 

[Clive]

So if you have three arable units, financially separate but physically managed as one entity what are the options for not spending 1000's, FarmFlo?

i think farmflo will be an option but its not yet able to do a lot of what GK can

Im watching it closely - the cloud is the future and I like their link with Xero

 

[Jetemp]

Wow the annual costs at £1200 would scare me! What would I get for that?

I would need both pf modules and multiple user but not at that price!

James

 

[Wombat]

Wow the annual costs at £1200 would scare me! What would I get for that?

I would need both pf modules and multiple user but not at that price!

James

I have the basic package, sentinal for Chem checking and the mapping bit of the PF package so you could see as applied data but not create maps plus the web apps and I am sure it's about £750 a year the new bill will be here soon but I think I will drop the mapping bit off this year

 

[Badshot]

Can't even open it today for some reason, and I have farm assurance coming this week.
Handy. Can't print feck all for them.......

 

[John]

I did get an email the other day about them having to do some work on it, so maybe that's why it's not working.

 

[Badshot]

I did get an email the other day about them having to do some work on it, so maybe that's why it's not working.

Hmm, maybe. Ought to be able to access stuff on the laptop though..

 

[Flintstone]

Try FieldMargin.

It's cloud based, does a chemical application sense check, does stock, marketing, cropping etc.

I like it.

 

[RobFM]

Thanks @Flintstone - how kind - I promise totally un prompted!
We are still in beta with the Crop Recorder - it will get a public release later in the year (I hope). DM me or @georgieFM on here and I should be able to persuade Tom our tech lead to let some more in!

BUT!

We are *just* about to quietly slip out what we have been working on over winter - fieldmargin's new mapping and note-taking/sharing app. On iphone and android.
After simple set up (from the comfort of your sofa) it keeps satellite maps of your land on the phone (no need for mobile reception); you see something on your travels and make a geolocated note which you can share with your team or your agronomist and vice versa.

We want to massively improve farm communication. Fill in the survey here and you'll be the first to know when it hits the stores. All feedback welcome!