--- title: Performance Live description: An ADOPT funded project to look at how to make farm benchmarking scalable, sustainable and cost-effective by integrating satellite and precision farming data. image: https://thearc.farm/hubfs/Website%20images%20-%20farming/dusan-ristic-dIAJhwUnO3w-unsplash.jpg --- [Skip to content](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/performance-live#main-content) [![Main Logo Colour](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Logos/Main%20Logo%20Colour.png?width=2000&height=778&name=Main%20Logo%20Colour.png)Homepage](https://www.thearc.farm) - [Research Model](https://thearc.farm/research-model) - [Explain](https://thearc.farm/explain) - [Evidence](https://thearc.farm/evidence) - [Experiment](https://thearc.farm/experiment) - [Exchange](https://thearc.farm/exchange) - [Projects](https://thearc.farm/projects) - [ADOPT](https://thearc.farm/adopt) - [Network](https://thearc.farm/network) - [ARC Innovators](https://thearc.farm/innovators) - [News & Updates](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates) [Connect](https://thearc.farm/contact-us) - [Research Model](https://thearc.farm/research-model) - [Explain](https://thearc.farm/explain) - [Evidence](https://thearc.farm/evidence) - [Experiment](https://thearc.farm/experiment) - [Exchange](https://thearc.farm/exchange) - [Projects](https://thearc.farm/projects) - [ADOPT](https://thearc.farm/adopt) - [Network](https://thearc.farm/network) - [ARC Innovators](https://thearc.farm/innovators) - [News & Updates](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates) [Connect](https://thearc.farm/contact-us) ![](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Website%20images%20-%20farming/dusan-ristic-dIAJhwUnO3w-unsplash.jpg?width=4032&height=2268&name=dusan-ristic-dIAJhwUnO3w-unsplash.jpg) ADOPT Project Digital # Performance Live ![Leo Townsend](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/1718306428178.jpeg?width=48&height=48&name=1718306428178.jpeg) Leo Townsend June 24, 2026 ## Using satellite data to benchmark farm performance ### Integrating satellite data with farm records can reduce the need for manual data collection making farm benchmarking simpler and more accessible. Farm benchmarking aims to improve understanding of crop performance and close performance gaps in arable farming. You can benchmark within one farm business but in most cases benchmarking is about comparing and learning from your peers. Initiatives like the Yield Enhancement Network and Farm Bench have demonstrated that benchmarking works. However, they struggled to find a sustainable operating model. **Performance Live** is an ADOPT-funded project that aims to create a benchmarking system that is easier to run, sustain and is scalable. Using Sentinel satellite data may simplify the data collection process and reduce the need for manual collection. However, significant challenges remain to integrate a wide variety of data sources into comparable farm metrics. The project brings together two lead farmer groups of around five farms each, based in the South and Midlands. Satellite data specialists [Assimila](https://www.assimila.earth/) are providing technical input alongside leading farm business consultancy [Ceres Rural](https://ceresrural.co.uk/) with their extensive experience of farm operations and performance. ## What is Sentinel? Sentinel are groups of satellites launched by the [European Space Agency](https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Copernicus/The_Sentinel_missions) to collect a range of climate and environmental data which can be used by research and commercial organisations. ## Farm benchmarking - **Farm Benchmarking**: Analysing differences within and between farms helps to improve productivity in underperforming areas. - **Operating Model**: Previous schemes have succeeded in benchmarking performance but not built a sustainable operating model. - **Satellite Data**: Field level data from Sentinel satellites can reduce requirement for on the ground data collection. - **Integrations**: Numerous systems are generating farm data but sharing and combining information from different systems is a technical and administrative challenge. - **Farmer Centred**: Benchmarking is about sharing facts and experience. Metrics and data are the starting point for a discussion not the end in itself. ## Who is involved? ### Lead farm – AH Oliver & Son Farmer and agronomist Will Oliver is leading the Midlands benchmarking group. The family farm is located in Leicestershire. ![Will Oliver](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Will%20Oliver.jpg?width=432&height=467&name=Will%20Oliver.jpg) ### Lead farm – Passmore Brothers Farmer David Passmore is leading the Southern benchmarking group. He is based in Oxfordshire. ![David Passmore](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/David%20Passmore.jpg?width=438&height=445&name=David%20Passmore.jpg) ### Evaluator Benchmarking, dashboards, COM-B evaluation. ![Ceres Rural - Icon & Logotype (RGB) copy](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Ceres%20Rural%20-%20Icon%20%26%20Logotype%20(RGB)%20copy.jpg?width=601&height=289&name=Ceres%20Rural%20-%20Icon%20%26%20Logotype%20(RGB)%20copy.jpg) ### Data Provider Satellite crop metrics – ACROPALIS. ![Assimila](https://thearc.farm/hubfs/Logos/Assimila.png) ## Managing farm data There is no shortage of data amongst the project participants, including satellite time series, soil datasets, 10 years of YEN farm records, farm management software records, and weather data. The problem is almost none of it can be shared or combined without significant friction. ### Quality Much farm data is compliance-grade, not analysis-grade. Farm management software is used primarily for regulatory compliance, not management. The data that flows through API connections, where it flows at all, typically has around 10% error rate and needs significant cleaning before it is usable for benchmarking. Only 30-50% of farmers connect via API even where connections are available. The rest revert to manual entry or simply do not participate. ### Standardisation Interoperability between farm data systems requires either common standards or translation layers. The industry has been working on this problem for a decade and has made real progress, but seamless interoperability remains elusive. Hestia, an open agri-environmental database developed at the Oxford Martin School, is used by Defra as a data standard across multiple funded projects. The FIG project, Farm Data Infrastructure and Governance, is working on this at industry level. AHDB's Farm Data Exchange, targeting procurement by the end of 2026, is a permissions and data routing infrastructure rather than a database and is designed to give farmers control over how their data flows between organisations. ### Permissions In many cases, farmer data collected under one project cannot be used beyond its original scope without going back to each individual farmer. Even where organisations hold valuable datasets built up over years, they cannot open them without a permissions exercise that is itself a major undertaking. This applies to research datasets, farm management software records, and benchmarking databases alike. ### Satellite data Rather than simple indices like NDVI, Assimila work with biophysically meaningful parameters such as Leaf Area Index, canopy cover, chlorophyll content, and fraction of photosynthetically active radiation. These are tracked as time series and converted into summary metrics such as overwintering canopy, maximum canopy, area under the curve, and timing of green-up and senescence. Radar data, unaffected by cloud cover, adds biomass and structural information. Weather data is similarly converted into meaningful metrics like growing degree days, vernalisation, and timing of wet and dry periods. Yield modelling and in-season forecasting are also possible, with uncertainty estimates. ### Trust Farmers will share data where they trust the recipient and can see a direct benefit to themselves. The red line is commercial use, specifically the fear that their data will be used to benefit a company rather than their own farm business, or used against them in pricing. Policy documents and data principles do not close this gap on their own. The organisations with the highest farmer trust are those perceived as non-commercial. Levy bodies and farmer-led networks have a structural advantage here that commercial platforms cannot easily replicate. ## The social element ### Focus on the human side of benchmarking not just technology In any project looking to test new technology, there is a danger that the technical aspects take precedence over how the users implement it. The benchmarking groups with the lead farmers are as important to the project's success as the data infrastructure. Peer-to-peer farmer learning works best in person. Data and analysis are inputs to that conversation, not substitutes for it. The outputs of any benchmarking system need to be robust enough to provoke meaningful conversations. But they should not seek to replace discussion with an entirely data-driven version of benchmarking which ends up focused on the things that are easy to measure and can miss some of the qualitative assessments farmers make during the season. Recording and analytical software are making it easier to incorporate qualitative evaluations into datasets but it is still no replacement for human contact, especially in a job which is seeing more tasks replaced with technical solutions. ## Key questions for Performance Live - **Which metrics matter?** Hundreds of satellite-derived, weather and soil metrics are potentially available. The project aims to identify which ones are most useful for predicting performance. - **How to encourage information sharing?** Even farmers who engage with benchmarking may resist data sharing when they do not understand exactly how it will be used. Clarity about data use and ownership is crucial. - **Within farm or cross farm benchmarking?** There is typically 50% yield variation within a single farm. Understanding the variation on one farm can avoid issues around data sharing and trust, but does it provide enough useful insights? - **How to make a benchmarking system that is sustainable in the long-term?** YEN and Farm Bench both built genuine value and both struggled to sustain it commercially. Performance Live has ADOPT funding for 15 months and then needs a continuation plan. - **How to combine different data sources?** Farms are generating more data than ever but quality and standardisation between different systems is a challenge. - **Who owns the IP of datasets?** When multiple organisations contribute data to a shared analysis, it is important to define ownership and usage of the combined dataset. ## Hear from the project participants > A crucial part of Performance Live is farmers sharing information with one another. We hope to add some case studies and testimonials from our farmer collaborators soon. > > **Daniel Kindred, ARC Founder** ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fthearc.farm%2Fnewsandupdates%2Fperformance-live](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fthearc.farm%2Fnewsandupdates%2Fperformance-live) ## Keep reading ### [![](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/AdobeStock_339458814.jpeg?width=5739&height=3831&name=AdobeStock_339458814.jpeg) Project Soil Health Nutrition Static Compost](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/static-compost) ### [![](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/AdobeStock_1838007274.jpeg?width=5321&height=3547&name=AdobeStock_1838007274.jpeg) Project Nutrition Smart Slurry](https://thearc.farm/newsandupdates/smart-slurry) [![Main Logo Colour](https://thearc.farm/hs-fs/hubfs/Logos/Main%20Logo%20Colour.png?width=2000&height=778&name=Main%20Logo%20Colour.png "Main Logo Colour")](https://www.thearc.farm) © 2026 ARC Agronomic Sciences. All rights reserved. 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