Share of farm holdings that use precision farming techniques in England 2019, by type

Approximately a quarter of responding English farm holdings used variable rate application techniques in October 2019. During the representative survey, it was found that the most widespread technique among responding holdings was weighting of livestock to measure growth rates. Least widespread were the use of automated heat detection systems, and the use of controlled traffic farming.

Variable rate application

The opposite of variable rate application (VRA) is uniform application. In uniform application a material, for example fertilizer or herbicide, is spread in equal measures over the entire area of application. In variable rate application, factors such as precise locations or qualities of an area are taken into account to reduce or increase the material application as needed. This can happen via sensor based VRA where the application happens in real time based on sensor input or in a pre-planned form via map based VRA.