Running a mixed cropping business with livestock means juggling multiple fields, operators, chemical products, and application timing. Managing spray records on paper or across scattered systems created inefficiencies and increased the risk of mistakes. As compliance expectations grew more rigorous, Emily needed a reliable way to record chemical use, prove her application decisions, and give customers and auditors confidence that jobs were completed safely and accurately.
Solution
Redmond Ag uses Agworld as the central system for spray planning, work orders, and application records. Their agronomist enters the chemical recommendations, and Emily converts them into jobs for the week. Operators receive clear guidance with exact instructions, and completed applications are recorded accurately with no paperwork. Agworld stores every application, weather condition, chemical rate, and operator detail in a single digital record, allowing Emily to easily supply information for compliance and customer reporting. The platform has replaced guesswork with clarity and provides a fully traceable spray diary for every field across the farm.
Result
Agworld has helped Redmond Ag lift their operational efficiency and accuracy. Spray plans are easier to organize, application errors are reduced, and every record is instantly available when required. Compliance documentation that used to take hours is now accessible in seconds, and Emily can have the confidence that all data, from chemical choices to weather conditions, is stored and auditable.
Redmond Ag
Location:Canterbury, NZ
Size:345 Acres
Type:Row Crops and Livestock
Crops:Seed and table potatoes, wheat, clover, various seed crops.
Redmond Ag is located at Kirwee, Canterbury - just outside of Darfield - and is run by 4th generation farming siblings Scott Redmond and Emily Horck. The business grows seed and table potatoes, cereals, small seeds and a range of other rotational crops, as well as running store lambs. This requires careful planning and long-term thinking across the fields each season. Managing different crops with varied spray requirements means Emily, Scott and their team rely on clarity and structure to keep operations moving efficiently.
Prior to adopting Agworld the operation used 'ProductionWise' but, when this platform shut down in New Zealand, the choice was made to switch to Agworld. Emily explains the move: “I previously used Agworld for my work as a field representative at Farmlands, I enjoyed using it and knew my way around it. So, when we found out that we had to find a replacement for ProductionWise it was a natural fit for us to choose Agworld.”
Emily works closely with her agronomists, most of whom input crop protection recommendations directly into Agworld. This ensures she always starts with accurate details before turning them into jobs. Emily: “We work with a number of different agronomists that advise us on the range of crops we produce. Most of them create their recommendations directly in Agworld, which shows me exactly what we need to apply. I then turn this into a work order which the sprayrig operators go out and execute on.” For Redmond Ag this process removes uncertainty, reduces the chance of errors and makes it simple to keep a running plan of what each field needs during the season.
From Planning to Compliance
With potatoes the most important crop at Redmond Ag, Emily creates detailed pre-season plans together with her agronomist in Agworld, so they know exactly what to expect throughout the season from a budget and application perspective. “This gives us a good idea of which crop protection products we'll need and what our cashflow projections will look like”, says Emily, “It all works seamlessly together, I just have to make sure that I keep the product prices updated so that my budgets remain accurate.”
Emily continues: “Because we have these detailed records of exactly what we do during the season, I can then use this post-season to calculate our gross margins so we know exactly what our results were and what we might be able to improve on next year.”
It's not only the planning, spraying and budgeting however that is critical to Redmond Ag's operation; being able to show exactly what they've done from a compliance perspective is just as important. Says Emily: “Whether it's the MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries), NZGAP or Seed Potato Certification Authority that need records, they all want the same thing: a structured and detailed overview of exactly how we grew our potatoes, the crop protection products we used, etc. With Agworld's standard 'Field Performance' report, compliance reports are easy for us to produce for anyone who needs it.”
Emily continues: “I couldn't imagine not having a system like Agworld to help us keep track of all of this; it would be very hard and I don't think I'd trust pen and paper in combination with our memory for this. Agworld saves us a lot of time with all these pieces of admin and makes our life a lot easier.
Support is key
With Scott, Emily and their mother all using Agworld for part of their tasks, everyone having access to the exact same data has become easy according to Emily: “I tend to use Agworld mostly on the computer for planning, creating actuals, budgeting etc., and mum as well when she does her finance-related tasks. Scott on the other hand uses Agworld more in the field instead of in the office and so the majority of what he does there is on his phone. But we all have access to the same data and so Scott can see exactly what we need to do on any given day so he can divide the tasks across the team, and mum can see exactly what applications we've done and enter some costs that will help me with budgeting and creating gross margin overviews. Agworld helps us cut out a lot of unnecessary communication and makes sure we're all on the same page.”
As is the case with any product or service used within the agricultural industry, service is key when using farm management software like Agworld says Emily: “The Agworld support team is fantastic. I don't have to hesitate and can ask them any question I might have and they'll steer me in the right direction pretty quickly, they're very helpful. This is definitely key for any software you use on a farm!”
Proof in Every Pass - Digital Records for Contract Spraying
Murray Cridge runs Windwhistle Spraying, a contract spraying operation, on New Zealand's Canterbury plains. Murray's season involves spraying crop protection products across a wide range of crops, fields, and client farms, often under tight timing and weather constraints. Managing his volume of work using paper diaries and printed recommendations created growing pressure. Records were difficult to store, retrieve, and verify, particularly when questions arose after an application. As compliance expectations increased and clients required clearer proof of work, Murray needed a better way to manage spray records that reduced admin burden while protecting both his business and his relationships with growers.
Glen Keeley, together with brother Jason and their parents, farms 2270 acres across two separate blocks in Canterbury, combining a diverse cropping rotation with lamb finishing and dairy cow grazing. With such a diverse operation, Glen needed a clear system to stay organised across multiple agronomists, staff and field operations. As irrigation expanded and cropping intensified, so did the complexity of chemical programmes, nutrient management and compliance requirements. Paper notes and memory alone could not keep up with the demands of traceability, record keeping and profitable decision making for this scaling operation.
Roper & Son is a second-generation, family-owned cropping and processing business operating across 280 hectares on the Canterbury plains. Growing over 19 different crops, they manage a complex rotation across multiple blocks and contract operations. With multiple agronomists, contractors, and audits to coordinate, paper-based tracking was no longer efficient. Maintaining chemical traceability for NZ GAP audits, managing multiple suppliers, and aligning staff and contractors on recommendations required a single, transparent system to manage all field operations and input records.
