farm wizard software brings A touch of magic to small business and agri industry

TERRY Canning comes from a farming family and it seemed naturalto him to bring together this background with his skills as anexperienced IT architect, who has worked at a senior level with BTand Nortel Networks. So much so, that he gave up his job with Nortelto go it alone.

"I was working for Nortel and had been working in China for 10months," Mr Canning said. "I then took voluntary redundancy."

By then he was working on his ideas for software that couldenable farmers to use an internet-based interface to comply with theincreasingly stringent and varied obligations to record the historyand welfare of their animals. In 2004, Mr Canning approached InvestNI with his ideas and they were impressed. "I won a Smart Award,which gave me 75% of project costs, about Pounds 40,000," he said.

"I then started working in my attic, writing software, basingthat on my knowledge of my dad's farm. I went to DARD [theDepartment for Agriculture and Rural Development] and they bought 50subscriptions for farms in Northern Ireland."

Mr Canning then went to his bank, which advanced funds under thesmall firms' loan guarantee scheme. By this time, the business wasalready supplying the software to 150 farms in Northern Ireland andit had ambitious plans.

"Our software makes it easier for farmers to maintain records,"said Mr Canning. "Ever since foot and mouth, farmers have had tokeep records on vet treatments, animal movements and fertility. Andon performance of the herd, for example on milk production."

Farm Wizard enables farmers to meet tougher legal requirementsand also support the growing focus of retailers, and consumers, onfood provenance.

Today Farm Wizard supplies about 1,000 farms in Northern Irelandand Great Britain. But it has also broken into other markets. "Wehave a number of corporate clients, for example, Dovecote Park, abeef processor which provides meat for Waitrose," said Mr Canning.Dovecote Park also uses the Farm Wizard software to providereassurance on the provenance of its beef for other customers aroundthe world, including the US, South America and for the largestgrocery retailer in Africa, Shoprite Checkers.

The Farm Wizard software has gained wide respect across thefarming industry but remains a small business. The operation soundsas if it is going well and is very busy? "Absolutely," said MrCanning.

www.farmwizard.com