Lockdown red tractor inspection

[MattR]

Had mine this morning. No scanning/emailing paperwork, just a video call for an hour and a half and showed her the paperwork she wanted to see via the video call. Not too bad

 

[Timbo]

Had mine this morning. No scanning/emailing paperwork, just a video call for an hour and a half and showed her the paperwork she wanted to see via the video call. Not too bad

^^^ GOOD.

 

[PhilipB]

All done.

All passed - three little red tractors and LEAF.

 

[mixed breed]

Inspection today.

Year on year you remember the panic of being asked for a piece of paper you've never heard of before, but forget the long, long silences.

Like others I find the run-up to it horribly stressful. I don't know exactly why, we always pass (kind of) but the protocols etc. Seem so horribly demanding and hectoring and have so much detail... So many bits of paper. Ghastly policies which are either too "big picture" to be stating anything beyond the blindingly obvious or about matters so small as to be irrelevant (dog worming)

I've been doing this for over 10 years, and it still blights a couple of weeks of my year, however much I follow the "wing it and deal with the noncompliance afterwards" approach.

The assessment never seems to bear much relationship to the protocols. The inspector sends me a A4 list of the things he has to see, which seems much more sensible.

That seems to be a common theme here, people hate the system but find their assessors quite reasonable.

you sum the job up perfectly, although the initial fears and moither of it is enough to make you wander why you bother particularly when there's a wedge of new stuff we should have been doing/recording.

The actual day is never that bad, for me It was nice to catch up with the fella, talk about farming and life in general. We're only human afterall.

But at the same time the paper trailing and endless standards become overwhelming. In my case, I (my oh) had all the new standards complete, yet he hardly looked at any of it, but he did manage to find some sheep drench used in the summer of 2019 that we didn't have a purchase invoice for. I scratted about for a bit, but no luck, My OH (and secretary) is in lockdown elsewhere, caring for her nan, who is on end of life care. I explained to the chap that i hadn't the heart to ring and ask where I might find the invoice. So he put it down as a non conformance. That disappointed me, obviously it was easily sorted and the supplier emailed me a copy later that day and ive emailed it in. But I do feel it was somewhat over the top, the animals that recieved the drench are long gone now and everything was in order for 2020.

You just wander, who actually gains from some of these trivial issues.

 

[PhilipB]

you sum the job up perfectly, although the initial fears and moither of it is enough to make you wander why you bother particularly when there's a wedge of new stuff we should have been doing/recording.

The actual day is never that bad, for me It was nice to catch up with the fella, talk about farming and life in general. We're only human afterall.

But at the same time the paper trailing and endless standards become overwhelming. In my case, I (my oh) had all the new standards complete, yet he hardly looked at any of it, but he did manage to find some sheep drench used in the summer of 2019 that we didn't have a purchase invoice for. I scratted about for a bit, but no luck, My OH (and secretary) is in lockdown elsewhere, caring for her nan, who is on end of life care. I explained to the chap that i hadn't the heart to ring and ask where I might find the invoice. So he put it down as a non conformance. That disappointed me, obviously it was easily sorted and the supplier emailed me a copy later that day and ive emailed it in. But I do feel it was somewhat over the top, the animals that recieved the drench are long gone now and everything was in order for 2020.

You just wander, who actually gains from some of these trivial issues.

It's just box ticking.

But if we accept that the inspectors are basically reasonable human beings, I think they quite like an "easy" non - compliance: it's not much trouble for you, and it makes them look rigorous

 

[DRC]

^^^ GOOD.

Sounds like scanning to the portal, may well save work going forward, as they are hoping to make the process more user friendly and once something’s been uploaded that doesn’t change, like the accident plan for instance, it shouldn’t need uploading again .
If we are stuck with the scheme, I’d be all for being able to add things throughout the year as you go along.
Talking to my assessor today, some love being organised beforehand with the portal,including me, others hated it.
She also said they are going to concentrate on serial offenders with unannounced visits to farms that have non confirmancies every year.

 

[PhilipB]

Personally I think we should resist the portal if we can.

It's just inviting ourselves to be scrutinised by faceless and unaccountable people sitting in an office somewhere.

I'd much rather have my health and safety policy examined by someone sitting across the table from me, even if I have to sit there all day to watch him read it.

All the while am inspector is with you, face to face, there is a basic social pressure on him /her, to make themselves "agreeable" to the people they are with. An operative at a computer has no such incentive to be nice or to make themselves liked by the person they're dealing with remotely.

 

[DRC]

Personally I think we should resist the portal if we can.

It's just inviting ourselves to be scrutinised by faceless and unaccountable people sitting in an office somewhere.

I'd much rather have my health and safety policy examined by someone sitting across the table from me, even if I have to sit there all day to watch him read it.

All the while am inspector is with you, face to face, there is a basic social pressure on him /her, to make themselves "agreeable" to the people they are with. An operative at a computer has no such incentive to be nice or to make themselves liked by the person they're dealing with remotely.

She says the visits would still need to continue, as obviously you need to actually see the state of the farm in some cases. It would just shorten the visit and do away with the usual scramble for a bit of paper you knew you’d got somewhere. Personally I’d like to do things like, when my agronomist emails me recommendations, or if I’m paying an invoice for a service on the drier for instance, to just upload it, job done .

 

[PhilipB]

She says the visits would still need to continue, as obviously you need to actually see the state of the farm in some cases. It would just shorten the visit and do away with the usual scramble for a bit of paper you knew you’d got somewhere. Personally I’d like to do things like, when my agronomist emails me recommendations, or if I’m paying an invoice for a service on the drier for instance, to just upload it, job done .

Yes, I see that, but basically at the moment there is a "cost" to NSF to every "evidence" I supply-- ie the inspector has to tap the details into his computer.

Remove that "cost" from them and put it on to me, make me the feeder of the information into the machine, and then (cynically) they'll just ask for more information. There will be a thousand little boxes on their "portal" and I'll have to drop an "evidence" into each and every one of them....

 

[DRC]

Yes, I see that, but basically at the moment there is a "cost" to NSF to every "evidence" I supply-- ie the inspector has to tap the details into his computer.

Remove that "cost" from them and put it on to me, make me the feeder of the information into the machine, and then (cynically) they'll just ask for more information. There will be a thousand little boxes on their "portal" and I'll have to drop an "evidence" into each and every one of them....

Maybe, maybe not , as there’s not much that they don’t already want . It’s just I’d rather do as much of it at my convenience ( wet afternoon ), rather than have the office or kitchen table strewn with various files and folders .
first thing they do anyway, is plug their computer and printer into my sockets !!