A crop plan that calculates per field
With soil, water, rules, nature and income. Per theme, never one average score.
A crop plan is more than a rotation scheme
What you grow where touches everything at once: soil, water, rules, nature and your income. Those interests clash. A crop that adds a lot of organic matter can also cause a lot of compaction. A crop with a good margin can get in the way of your rest-crop obligation.
Pour that into one score and you average the clash away. Plus three and minus three is zero, and zero sounds like “nothing wrong”. That is why FairGrow calculates differently.
A profile per theme, weakest link first
At the top of the farm profile one sentence tells you what needs attention. Each theme gets one word: fine, watch, problem, or figures only when no colour applies. Below that are the tools and, one click away, all figures per theme.
Each criterion stands on its own, with its own value, unit, colour and certainty. Per theme the weakest link counts. There is no total score.
Legal rules are kept apart from advice. And for every figure you see how certain it is: measured, from a source, derived, estimated, unknown or not applicable.
What the crop plan knows per field
Soil
Soil type, organic matter, compaction and the build-up of effective organic matter over the rotation.
RVO soil map, BRO, your soil tests, CBAVHistory
What grew on the field in recent years, even if you did not record it yourself.
BRP crop parcels, satellite, your recordsWeather and water
Drought, waterlogging, groundwater level and rain around harvest.
ERA5, Open-Meteo, BRO groundwater, AHN, SPEINitrogen and phosphate
Application room, leaching risk and the nitrogen left after harvest.
RVO Table 2, Handboek Bodem en Bemesting, PAGVRules per country
Rest crop, catch crop, winter crop, potatoes 1 in 3 and GAEC, per country and per year.
RVO lists, NVWACrop protection
How much and what you spray, the load for bees and natural enemies, and green alternatives.
Your records, product register, substance profileBees and nature
Flowering and pollinator dependence, farmland birds and the species around your field.
Bee database, Delphy, recordsPrices and margin
Margin per hectare with a range from current prices and costs.
Price layer, FADNWork and labour
Labour per month and your busiest period, from standards and your own hours.
Work module, time sheetsMore in the knowledge base: nitrogen standards, bee database, disease models and pesticide load.
Three examples of how FairGrow calculates
A crop value is the starting point. The field decides the outcome: the soil type, the harvest date and the weather.
Compaction risk
Lifting and chopping maize weigh more than mowing and threshing. Clay, peat and loess are more sensitive than sand. A harvest after the workable-days limit and heavy rain just before it count too, as does a contract crop with a fixed harvest date.
Chance of a successful green manure
FairGrow counts the growing days until the climate normal of your field drops below 5 °C, and also looks at the sowing date: after 1 September a green manure yields less, after 1 October little.
Organic matter over the rotation
FairGrow adds up the effective organic matter from crop residues and green manures per year (CBAV figures) and compares the average with the target for your soil. Temporary grassland counts when it is ploughed in.
What you must do and what is wise, kept apart
The law and good advice are not the same. FairGrow shows them side by side: a legal rule is green or red, with article and source. Advice is a colour you weigh yourself.
Legal (RVO)
Advice
The lists for rest crop, winter crop and catch crop come per crop code and per year from the RVO crop code list. FairGrow checks them again every year.
What FairGrow knows per country
Soil, weather, water, nature and prices work in every country. The rules do not: each country fills in the European farming rules itself, and outside the EU national laws apply, or none. That is why the crop plan shows for every field how far FairGrow is with the rules of your country.
This happens in four steps. First the rules for crop rotation and soil cover as your country fills them in. Then the nitrate rules, such as a catch crop after harvest. Then the statutory breaks between crops against diseases and pests. And finally the previous crops from the public field register, so you do not have to enter everything yourself. If a rule does not exist in your country, that step counts as done.
Every rule comes from the original legal text of that country, with the article and the years in which it applies. You read the explanation in your own language. If FairGrow does not fully know a rule yet, you see grey with “not checked yet”, never a green tick. A Dutch reference value that FairGrow uses elsewhere is shown as an estimate.
How far FairGrow is now
Status as of today; FairGrow checks the rules again every year. Where a country differs per region, you see the lowest and the highest level.
Which crop fits where?
Choose a field and a year, and optionally a goal: a rest crop, less compaction, more organic matter, better for pollinators or fitting your labour planning.
FairGrow first checks the rules with the crop actually in your crop plan, including the years after. Then you see the crops side by side per criterion, with the difference from what is there now. There is no total score: you weigh.
Compare plans and learn from what happened
With variants you calculate a different crop plan without touching your real plan. You see up to three variants next to the plan, with the difference per theme. From the crop chooser you put a crop into a variant with one click.
After the season the evaluation sets the plan against what actually happened, and FairGrow learns from your own records: your harvest date, your hours and your yield.
What makes this crop plan different
- Per field and per year, with your own soil, weather and history.
- Certainty for every figure: measured, source, derived, estimate, unknown or not applicable.
- Rules per country and per year, apart from advice.
- Crop protection and pollinators count, from your own records.
- Open area data: groundwater, water and elevation, nature.
- FairGrow learns from your records: harvest date, hours and yield.
- Every year a check of rules and sources.
- Processing on our own servers in a Dutch data centre.
Where the figures come from
Crop code list, rest crops, catch crops, winter crops, nitrogen standards (Table 2), BRP crop parcels
Rules for potatoes and soil-borne diseases
Handboek Bodem en Bemesting: effective organic matter, nitrogen efficiency coefficients
Organic matter of green manures
Drought sensitivity and salt tolerance (Maas-Hoffman)
Crop codes, pests and host plants
Soil, groundwater, water and elevation
Costs and margin
Nitrogen left after harvest
Frequently asked questions
Does FairGrow give my crop plan a score?
No. You get a profile per theme, with the weakest link per theme. One score would average conflicting interests away.
What if there is no source?
Then it honestly says “unknown” or “estimate”, with the reason. Better an open gap than a figure that is wrong.
Does it work outside the Netherlands?
The calculations work per field everywhere. The rules are stored per country in FairGrow; how far that is per country, you see above under Per country.
Who owns my data?
You do. FairGrow uses your records to calculate for you and does not sell them. Processing takes place on our own servers in a Dutch data centre.
Open your own crop plan
See per field and per theme where you stand, with the source and the certainty for every figure.