Martin Sraka

What kind of farm do you have and what is your main activity?
Our farm is engaged in both crop farming and animal husbandry, crop farming being the more prominent one. We also provide services for agricultural machinery.

How big is your farm, how many people work there and how long has it existed?
The farm is 55 ha in total, 5 ha of pastures and 50 ha of fields. There are 17-20 head of beef cattle in the stable on average. Several family members work at the farm, where I do most of the work with machinery, my father is in charge of cattle, and the rest of the tasks is divided among the family. My father’s parents began the work, then my father took over, and I’ve been working at the farm for over 15 years, gradually taking over before officially taking over in 2011.

Where do you sell your products? How do you market them?
We sell our products wholesale to different customers and provide services to local farms. We also sell some of our produce in smaller quantities at home.

What differentiates you from farms with similar activities? What makes you special?
It’s the details that make us special, since they are usually the difference between low and high quality. We produce over 6 tons of wheat every year and it has been in the A class for several years. When we buy agricultural mechanization, we strive to optimize our business. Because we’re also employed full-time, we need to do our field work as efficiently as possible. Perhaps we’re also different because we do all administrative work ourselves with PANTHEON SE and PANTHEON FA.

Who are you grateful to for your success so far. What motivates and drives you?
Our success in the past is the result of several factors. I’d like to mention the solid foundations that I got from my parents on which I could begin building. Then there are good harvests and good market prices for our produce, fewer small farms, from which we could buy or rent more arable land, successful grant applications for upgrading our farm, etc. In addition to all that, there is also our hard work and the improvements we make ourselves. The goal is to grow and improve the farm, focusing on maximizing profit per unit. One of the reasons for growth and development is the need to implement new methods and technologies, to be better. At the same time, we also need to feed our family from month to month.

Why did you decide to buy/lease PANTHEON FA?
I decided to lease FA last year after double-entry accounts became mandatory. Afterwards I was part of the Agro IT project. I use the SE license to have a good overview over costs and income throughout the year, to make decisions for the future more easily, and to reduce some of the costs by having always up-to-date information. The advantages of having leased the license are being able to keep track of events that influence my decisions, and to be able to easily take care of all administrative needs of the farm.

What kind of benefits did you expect of the program (e.g. less time spent entering data and making reports, farm and cost overview, higher efficiency, control over pesticide and fertilizer usage, tracking, etc.)?
My expectations of the program in the beginning were relatively low, because I needed to get used to the program and understand the logic so I could make the most of it. Some of the operations open up questions, the answers to which you can find in the help in different ways. The information about the amount of used material and its cost is very important to plan production and to analyze business results.

To what extent did it meet your expectations?
I’m still finding ways to get even more out of the system. I’d like that the program keeps being upgraded so that it’s as user friendly as it can be, and so it can connect with existing navigation systems in tractors that already track date, time, surface area, and amounts of seeds, pesticides or fertilizer you use.

How would describe your experience with PANTHEON Farming?
I was already used to keeping records in Excel by manually entering data. Working with PANTHEON, which is supported by data from the Center Register, makes things easier.

Did you attend any training. Was it a challenge to start using the program?
I attended training when I was part of the Agro IT project. I didn’t have problems adapting to the program, because I use different programs at work and was used to treating each new program as a challenge, since each of them is specific in its functions.

Would you recommend PANTHEON Farming to a friend, neighbor or another farm? Why?
Yes, I would recommend it, because it adapts to changes in legislation and users’ wishes, as you can see in various professional media and in the announcements for users about program updates.

Would you like to add anything?
As mentioned, I’d like more compatibility with sensors and navigation systems in agricultural machinery, which would relieve the user even more from having to enter data manually.