Farming Monthly National December 2016 | Page 37

| LAMMA Datatag warn farmers of the rise in theft Datatag has issued a warning to farmers concerning the rise in rural crime highlighted by the Met Police’s Plant and Agricultural Intelligent Unit (PANIU) in a recent report. onger winter nights mean it’s more important than ever to improve farm security to protect machinery, livestock and farm equipment from thieves. Insurance provider NFU Mutual is advising farmers to upgrade security measures following a recent spike in farm theft claims in parts of the UK. Thefts of high-value tractors, mostly from arable farms in the Eastern counties of England, are the most expensive claims, but NFU Mutual is also seeing increasing numbers of medium sized tractors, quad bikes and utility vehicles and Land Rover Defenders being stolen. Thefts are carried out by both professional and opportunistic criminals on a daily basis with over £1m worth of equipment stolen every week. The impact on farms is not limited to the cost of the theft itself as consequential loss of production and income can soon exceed that. It’s therefore vital farmers do everything they can to keep the criminals at bay. L www.farmingmonthly.co.uk Datatag ID Limited is the number one provider of security registration systems, including the official Construction Equipment Security and Registration (CESAR) Scheme for equipment. CESAR marking for large and small agricultural equipment is supported by the majority of major insurers, as a powerful deterrent. Major insurer’s support the adoption of the CESAR Scheme and offer insurance premium discounts of up 25% on all CESAR marked equipment. Recently John Deere has adopted CESAR as standard on all of their Gator models. John Deere tractors are already protected by CESAR. The CESAR security system is made up of state of the art Datatag technology including transponders, RFID tags and nondestruct warning labels with unique registration numbers. CESAR has been proven, since its launch in 2007, to be both a deterrent against theft and as an invaluable aid in recovery. CESAR has contributed to a 70%+ reduction in the theft of equipment. 2016 saw the 225,000th CESAR registered machine, a New Holland combine, that belongs to TV personality and BBC Countryfile presenter Adam Henson. December 2016 | Farming Monthly | 37