Jon Stewart, the main man behind MeritAgCheck, tells FPJ how the new app is revolutionising farm management and simplifying health and safety
How does MeritAgCheck’s app make farm management easier?
MeritAgCheck enables produce businesses and their associated farms and supplier groups to easily manage all their machinery, vehicles and buildings in one app. You can automate processes, eliminate paper checks, and build full records against all assets to meet your exact needs and ensure full compliance. The app streamlines end-to-end produce and farm management, saving time and money.
What are the key challenges when it comes to health and safety in fruit and vegetable businesses?
A big risk is non-compliance when something slips off your radar or gets missed. Having a robust health and safety management system is historically time-consuming and a complex admin task, which can distract a business from its core revenue-generating activities. MeritAgCheck has changed this by streamlining and simplifying health and safety, utilising the associated data to enable more informed management decisions while developing a continuously improving safety culture.
What advice do you have for improving safety at a farm or packhouse?
Utilise technology and the associated data. Identifying trends and patterns has a positive correlation with overall business performance and operational efficiency. MeritAgCheck uses a simple QR code system for conducting checks and collating key information, which supports a produce or packhouse business and its farms to build a data set for improved safety and cost-based decision-making.
What are the advantages of monitoring the health of your machinery with MeritAgCheck?
Produce businesses and their farms can build a full audit trail and service history against each item of machinery and building, including the setting of reminders for servicing, inspections and maintenance. This optimises operational efficiency, minimises downtime and maximises the resale value of assets. The app also tracks fuel and part usage per machine to control and manage costs.
What inspection services do you offer to help farmers ensure the safety of their equipment?
We offer on-site setup days with MeritAgCheck to help our customers get the best out of the app. As an added service, we offer on on-site Health and Safety/Risk Audit from £995 plus VAT. The audit populates our health and safety app with risk assessments and safe working practices and identifies the high-priority actions specific to the produce, packhouse or farm site to ensure operational safety. Customers can also build app-based farm and yard maps, which is a real game-changer.
How have you made the apps easy to use and what sets yours apart from other similar platforms?
MeritAgCheck was launched specifically for farm and produce businesses in 2020, and we have significantly developed the app each year in partnership with that community. Our focus is on supporting businesses in our sector to save time and money while improving operational efficiency and safety. In addition to our easy-to-use QR code system, a big differentiator is that the app works online and offline, so operators don’t require mobile signal to conduct checks and report issues.
Have your platforms been designed to help growers comply with specific audits required by retailers?
Yes. MeritAgCheck has a full reporting suite, and we work closely with our customers to ensure they can easily access the data they require for Red Tractor, BRC, and other assurance schemes and retailer requirements. Our reports streamline submissions and save significant amounts of manual process and input. Our produce, packhouse and farm customers have quoted that the app has saved up to 10 days of admin time per year.
