8 FARM NEWS
APR/MAY 2019 • farmers-mart.co.uk
Who is Hectare, SellMyLivestock,
Graindex, FarmPay and Tudder?
Hectare Agritech:
Hectare is based in Rowlands
Castle in West Sussex. It is the
parent company of SellMyLive-
stock (SML) and Graindex, the
UK’s largest and fastest growing
online agritech trading platforms,
as well as secure payments plat-
form FarmPay, and swipe-based
cattle trading app Tudder.
Hectare’s mission is to make
farmers’ lives easier by reinventing
farm trading with its digital mar-
ketplaces. They enable the online
trade of farm livestock and combi-
nable crops between farmers and
their downstream supply chains,
boosting transparency, efficiency,
security, welfare and insight within
the farming industry.
Hectare has over 47,000 UK
farmers registered to its platforms,
which equates to approximately
a third of UK farms, with roughly
1,000 farmers signing up to its plat-
forms on a monthly basis. While
Hectare’s focus is on UK outputs,
it does also see livestock traded
from as far afield as Sweden, Den-
mark and France, as well as closer
to home with Ireland. It has listed
over £65m of livestock, grain and
feed and bedding for sale in the
last twelve months, at a growth
rate of 113% year-on-year.
Jamie - Founder
SellMyLivestock (SML):
SML is a digital marketplace
which enables the online trade of
farm livestock between farmers
and their downstream supply
chains. In the past six months,
The SellMyLivestock team have
also integrated the sale of finished
stock via its Primestock plat-
form, which enables the sale of
a farmers primestock to proces-
sors across the UK, as well as the
sale of genetics, which enables
farmers and genetics companies
to buy and sell bull semen and
dairy cow embryos via an online
marketplace.
Farmers can trade at any time of
the day, indeed 8-9pm is the bus-
iest trading hour on SML. Farmers
always have the final decision on
the price offered to them. And with
upto 75,000 head of livestock for
sale on any given day. That’s the
equivalent to being in upto fifteen
live auction markets at once.
Graindex:
Graindex works in a similar fash-
ion to SML, and allows farmers to
sell their grain to merchants online
in a more efficient way, that saves
these farmers time and money.
Farmers upload the specification
of their grain and merchants then
bid for it during two, two hour
trading periods each working day.
Once the bids have been finalised,
farmers are then able to review
them before confirming who they
wish to sell to.
FarmPay:
FarmPay is a secure payments
platform that helps deal with the
issue of insecure payments within
farming. FarmPay is a secure and
simple way to pay digitally, letting
the farming industry reap the
benefits of online trade. FarmPay
holds money securely until deals
are completed successfully –
protecting everyone involved,
bringing the trust of a handshake
for the digital age.
Tudder:
On Valentine’s Day this year,
SellMyLivestock launched Tudder
- which utilises swipe-based tech-
nology made famous by dating
apps such as Tinder. Users of Tud-
der swipe right on cattle they like
the look of. They are then directed
to a page on the SellMyLivestock
website where they can browse
more pictures and data about the
animals before deciding whether
to buy. Valuable information is
then presented on matters such
as milk yield and protein content,
or calving potential.
Since its launch on Valentine’s
Day, Tudder has been downloaded
18,000 times across 28 countries,
trended as the #1 new app on Goog-
le Play and as the #29 business app
on the Apple Store – alongside the
likes of Facebook Ads, Google Ana-
lytics and Xero - which is incredibly
impressive, considering the app is
just for farmers.
Why Hectare exists:
46% of British farmers told us in
a recent survey that they do not
make a profit. The World Bank says
that we will need to produce 50%
more food by 2050 if the global
population continues to rise at its
current pace. UK Farming needs to
become more profitable to be able
to make the investments required
in technology to drive productivity
to hit this goal.
While there has been a lot of
discussion about the impact of
technology on farming production
processes, for example drones and
sensors, little change has been en-
acted in the business side of things.
Farmers could save considerable
time and money as well as max-
imising their revenues by utilising
technology more in the marketing
and selling of their outputs.
Hectare’s technology can truly
help farmers to open up themselves
to a wider audience, allowing them
to conduct business whenever and
wherever they want. The industry
has seen considerable productivity
growth by the introduction of farm
machinery, fertilisers and other
agrochemical, and Hectare believes
it’s time to see this reflected in how
we buy and sell.
Hectare enables and unlocks
the online trade of farm livestock
and combinable crops between
farmers and their downstream
supply chains. Because the
current agri-food supply chain is
complex, opaque and inefficient.
Farmers are restricted in terms
of how and when business can
take place, and this needs to
change in the face of mounting
pressure.
Hectare prides itself
in driving:
• Transparency – By opening
up the market for farmers
and buyers, giving the widest
choice of products, informa-
tion and buyer/sellers to all.
• Efficiency - Improving the
entire supply chain process,
eliminating wasted costs, time
and produce.
• Security - Ensuring an ele-
ment of trust into the process,
making sure everyone gets
the right price for what they
sell.
• Welfare - Improving animal
welfare, stopping unneces-
sary animal movements and
reducing disease spread.
• Insight - Adding an additional
element of knowledge by
providing independent in-
sights to drive better business
decisions.
SellMyLivestock and Graindex are
both free and easy to use - get
started buying and selling today by
visiting www.sellmylivestock.co.uk or
www.graindex.com.