Farm safety and visitor tracking – Onside
An app for managing on-farm tasks and check-ins, biosecurity risks, and property mapping.
Benefits
Onside helps farmers, growers, and contractors to keep farms safe through:
- managing visitor check-ins
- communicating with everyone onsite during emergencies, such as a bushfire
- tracking visitors to control the spread of diseases.
Farm managers can also map their properties and setup or delegate tasks to staff whilst off-farm.
Keeping all records in one digital location reduces the amount of paperwork and time spent on farm safety compliance.
How it works
Onside displays an aerial view of the property, helping to map farm tasks and locate visitors that are using the app.
Staff and contractors can quickly check-in when they arrive and check-out when they leave the farm by scanning QR codes, which can be positioned around the property.
The app notifies visitors of property boundaries and includes GPS pin locations of hazards and assigned tasks.
Online dashboard for Onside
Installation and power
Download the app onto a mobile device and access online via computer.
Connectivity requirements
Onside works with cellular network or Wi-Fi connectivity. It has offline capability, which updates once connectivity is restored.
Pricing model
Monthly subscription fees.
Producer case study
Boyd Hogan is the farm manager of 2 citrus properties in the Riverland owned by Southern Cross Farms. Across these properties are 200 hectares of navels, tangerines, mandarins, grapefruits and lemons.
Prior to adopting Onside, most documentation relating to farm safety was done on paper, including spray records and visits from contractors. In mid-2022, the head office of Southern Cross Farms in Mildura recommended the move to a digital platform. Boyd chose Onside and he has found it so useful that he has recommended all other Southern Cross farms do the same.
Boyd says the greatest benefit of Onside comes with the instant nature of a digital platform. Because there are no longer delays associated with paper forms, he can create a task and someone on the other side of the property can action it immediately.
He can see where all staff and visitors are from the moment they enter or leave the property. Rules for visitor and compliance documentation can be viewed by everyone at all times.
Another benefit is the improved farm safety that comes with instant risk reporting, which keeps small problems from becoming worse. It saves time and money, and ultimately protects worker safety.
If a pipeline bursts or a tree goes down in the middle of the night, the first person to happen across it can notify everybody at once, rather than individually contact everybody concerned. The exact location of a hazard can be pinned by GPS.
The ability for workers to report their movements has been used preventatively to manage the spread of crop diseases, which is important when picking crews and backpackers travel across many properties.
Onside has been favourably received on-farm, including by elderly staff who were initially hesitant about shifting to a digital solution. The user interface is simple and intuitive enough that staff have been able to adjust quickly. Boyd recommends Onside for any grower who wants to save time and improve risk management on their farm.