Recently we were called up to Northumberland in order to advise a very worried farmer about the security of his machinery.
Here is the story..
Craig and Cameron farm just over 1000 acres in North Northumberland.
It is a glorious spot, both brothers and their families live on the land that they own and farm.
The farm is at the top end of a long winding road that runs through the middle of a tiny hamlet comprising of about 7 houses. It’s very remote
The land is managed in a diverse way, there are various crops grown , often with experimental crops being tried, and a small herd of cows and sheep and quite a lot of pigs!
Craig Comments ‘ It’s a brilliant place to work – not many people get a view like this from their office. We have worked and owned this particular piece of land since the early 80’s when my Dad bought it – It was a dairy farm back then’
Both brothers embrace new technology and are entirely committed to investing in security
John Deere appears to be the manufacturer of choice on this steading – with tractors, huge grass cutters and enormous combine harvesters all sporting the instantly recognizable green and yellow livery.
They have made some forward looking decisions, with the live play CCTV being a well established security feature on the farm as well as alarms on the tractor sheds.
They are however aware that even though the big machines have built in GPS tracking and security features, the gangs of thieves operating out of the nearest city – Newcastle upon Tyne, will actually target the GPS kit on the big machines and leave with that and all the smaller assets as a bonus.
The smaller assets like the Quad, ATV, Forklift and the big mower are not covered by a separate security device – ironic as these are the machines most frequently stolen from farms.
Craig and Cameron are well aware of this and that although thus far they have been extremely lucky not to have lost anything it is really only a matter of time .
As Craig comments ‘ its really isolated up here, and there are a good half a dozen different ways to access the farmyard so its really difficult to secure’
We all know how expensive adequate insurance is, a robust and layered approach to security, like the one that they are building, can go a long way towards mitigating the risk of rural theft and keeping premiums lower.
In 2020 9.8 million pounds worth of vehicles and assets were stolen with a paltry 5% ever recovered!
As Craig States ‘ its not just that someone has come onto the land, the land where my wife and child are, and stolen something that has been worked for – that is bad enough. All of our machinery is essential to our farming operation – we literally cannot operate without the machinery we have – however quickly the insurance pays out there is still a delay that impacts the farm.
Craig makes a very good point!
Knowing that rural crime is on the rise and indeed that the idyllic area across which he and his brother farm has, according to the NFU Rural Crime Report 2020, the third highest rural crime rate in the Country, they have undertaken to invest in another layer of protection for the smaller assets.
‘We wanted reliability and ease of use’ says Craig ‘ We didn’t want to be messing about with hard wiring or recharging battery units. If something goes missing, gets stolen or lost, I can locate it at the click of a button – I can easily fit the covert units , set geo fences and my Invenio app will alert me.
I am delighted that I chose to invest in Invenio units – although I do hope that I never have to actually use them!’
Call Us today to discuss securing your farm assets and vehicles.
