With Flexible Cropping, you can now capture cropping in a way that reflects real-world farm activity, while making it faster and easier to enter and maintain accurate cropping data.

Flexible Cropping can be accessed via the Planning tab in Contour.

Simpler, faster account-level crop management

Cropping can now be viewed and managed at account level, reducing duplication and saving valuable time. Cropping can be entered with just the crop species, with details such as variety, target yield, and end use added later when needed — for example, ahead of nutrient planning.

Independent crop boundaries (plots)

Crop boundaries are now managed independently from field boundaries through the introduction of plots. Plots define where crops are allocated within fields and have their own boundary and area. Where crops are grown in the same area of a field across seasons, plots can be reused.

Split cropping within fields

With independent crop boundaries, fields can now be split to allow multiple crops to be allocated within the same field. If the crop locations are known, fields can be split by drawing boundaries. If not, splits can be created simply by specifying the cropped area (ha), without any drawing.

Multiple crops can be added as a sequence to the same plot in the same harvest year. This is ideal for short rotations (such as grass followed by maize) or for managing areas of crop failure.

Primary crops & compatibility with planning tools

Flexible Cropping works alongside legacy cropping, which will remain available in view-only mode. Where multiple crops exist in a field (through splits or sequences), a primary crop can be selected and sent to legacy cropping. Planning tools and other Contour features will continue to use legacy cropping data while we upgrade them in stages to support Flexible Cropping.

When farms or fields are updated, cropping plans can be updated to reflect those changes. To avoid unintended changes, cropping plans will not update automatically. Where field boundaries are updated, crop boundaries will only be updated for the selected harvest year, with historical crop boundaries retained.

Log in to Contour to check out the updates today, and please send any feedback you may have to info@digital.originenterprises.com to help us keep improving.