New features are designed to help reduce manual reporting tasks
Red Tractor has introduced three major improvements to its member portal, which is says are designed to reduce assessment preparation time, stress and the paperwork burden for farmers and growers.
The updates allow members to take live, geo-stamped photos directly within the portal as compliance evidence, using their mobile phone. Instead of manually recording tasks on paper, the portal automatically captures location, date and time data, creating an instant digital record and demonstrating due diligence.
“This addresses a genuine frustration farmers and growers have shared, which is maintaining paper records for routine tasks that could be evidenced far more efficiently,” said Philippa Wiltshire, director of standards and operations at Red Tractor. “This is about making the portal work around how farms actually operate.”
Further improvements include a new shortlist function which flags ‘high-impact’ documents for uploading prior to assessments, plus embedded links to third-party templates, such as Yellow Wellies’ health and safety resources.
“To help reduce the time spent preparing for audits, we’ve worked with the certification bodies to identify which documents will have the biggest impact on a farmer’s physical assessment,” Wiltshire explained. “These can be seen on the portal using a simple toggle button.”
The changes will not affect access to farm data either by Red Tractor or the portal developer Map of Ag, Wiltshire confirmed. “Farmers and growers’ control of data is crucial and remains at the forefront of any enhancements we make to the system,” she said. “In addition, individuals retain full choice over whether and how they use these features.”
Integrating compliance
Beyond its own portal, Red Tractor reported that it is working with third-party software providers to integrate standards compliance into systems farmers already use.
New crops checklists developed with MeritAgCheck are due to launch imminently, and discussions are underway with other providers across the sectors.
Jon Stewart, director at MeritAgCheck, said: “Having the Red Tractor requirements built directly into MeritAgCheck means farmers can capture the information once and use it for multiple purposes, including their farm assurance. The integration makes the process much smoother for our customers and ensures they stay audit‑ready without extra admin, saving them time that they can re-invest into other activities.”
Wiltshire added: “We want to work with any company whose reporting could overlap with what’s required for Red Tractor assessments. If we can reduce duplication by working with software already in use, then that’s progress too.”
