FMSWA
Farming Management Services Western Australia was founded in 1966 and, fast forward to 2025, FMSWA now manages 50,000 hectares of farmland across 10 separate aggregations in Western Australia from as far north as Geraldton to Mount Barker in the south, growing crops as well as running 10,000 breeding ewes and 3,000 breeding cattle.
In 2018 it became clear that the organization needed a digital platform to help manage the farming aggregations, see the recommendations from the agronomists and manage the cropping seasons from start to finish. FMSWA Managing Director Andrew Wylie explains: “We had a legacy digital platform but it did not enable the seamless communication that we need to have with our agronomists and it was difficult to use for our farm managers, so we ended up with a lot of gaps in our data. After looking at the different options available we trialled Agworld at one of our aggregations, Velyere, Dandaragan, and when we saw how successful it was there, we soon implemented it across all our farms.”
Velyere Farm Manager Peter Rathjen recalls this trial period: “At first, Head Office told me to just give it a try as I've always been into good record keeping. Once I saw how it streamlined everything we do at Velyere, I was all in.” Now, every aspect of cropping at Velyere, from agronomist plans to planting and fertilizing, is logged and tracked in Agworld. Peter adds: “The ability to sit down with my agronomist Craig Topham and do our cropping plans right in Agworld and then during the season send his recommendations directly to our John Deere equipment, has saved me hours every week. We used to write notes in the cab and then input them into our legacy system at night. Now, it all just flows automatically.”
At the beginning of 2024, with Agworld fully adopted and widely used across the organization, the time was ripe to start looking at the next system that FMSWA could adopt to help gain more efficiencies. FMSWA Operations Manager Andrew Clarke explains: “We knew that whatever we would adopt next, it had to integrate with Agworld as it's our core system, similar to how John Deere integrates with Agworld for example. We also knew that we wanted to be able to gain efficiencies in managing our chemical inventory, and so when we found out about Shed by FarmReady, the decision was pretty straightforward to focus on implementing it.”
At the enterprise level, Andrew Clarke highlights how these integrations remove redundancy and improve accuracy: “The fewer touchpoints we have means less manual data entry occurs, decreasing errors. With Agworld as our core, other systems like John Deere and Shed work around it. These systems all integrate with each other and give us a seamless experience where data flows freely between the systems giving us the intelligence we need.”
Peter Rathjen adds: “Being able to send our agronomist's recommendations straight from Agworld to the machines via My JD Online and then the completed jobs syncing back into Agworld as actuals is a game-changer, all information is automatically there. You can edit if you need to, but most of the time, you don't need to. You just hit ‘accept' and you're done.”
For a large farming organization like FMSWA, balancing head office oversight with on-farm autonomy is key. “Our farm managers are still farmers. They don't want to be behind a screen all day,” says Andrew Wylie. “Agworld's iOS app allows them to work in the field, stay on top of tasks, and log data with minimal friction.”
Peter Rathjen agrees: “I've got four permanent staff, and we do everything ourselves: we don't use any contractors. Everyone's got access to Agworld on their iPads. I'm the only one entering data, but they can all see what needs to be done.” With all data visible to head office in Perth, communication is smoother and more transparent, says Peter Rathjen: “I don't mind them seeing what's in the shed or what we've done. If you've got nothing to hide, it shouldn't matter.”
Having the right backup for their digital tools is key though says the FMSWA team, and being able to access high-quality support when they need it is crucial says Andrew Clarke: “The guys at FarmReadyhave been fantastic, they understand what we're trying to achieve and often turn around new features in days. That responsiveness has been key.”
Peter Rathjen concurs: “I was on the phone to Agworld just yesterday. They always pick up, and they always help. It's not just software—it's the team behind it that gets what we do.”
Crop inputs such as chemicals and fertilizers are one of the largest costs for any cropping operation and being able to accurately track the inventory as well as usage is key to keeping the expenses down as much as possible. Andrew Wylie: “We used to do one or two stocktakes a year, often without knowing where products went. With Shed we now know exactly what our inventory is and as a result we carry 25–30% less chemical across the group, freeing up over a million dollars in working capital.
”Andrew Wylie continues: “Not only have we freed up that working capital but, because Shed shows us exactly what our inventory is at all times, we are able to improve our inputs purchasing strategy. Our agronomist creates our cropping plans in Agworld, which then syncs with Shed and shows us the product-use forecast. Between knowing what we have and knowing our use-forecast, this gives us the ability to buy a product when the price is low and we know we'll need it soon, or to hold off when prices are high and we can see we have enough stock to get us through the season. Sometimes Shed shows us that we can shift chemicals between aggregations to achieve savings, something that we previously didn't know about.”
Shed also helps better-manage the individual operations, says Peter Rathjen: “As soon as our local reseller drops off a delivery, I enter the quantities and purchase prices into Shed, which updates my inventory right away. Then, as we do applications, Agworld automatically deducts the right amounts from Shed. No more wondering what's left in the shed.” Even more importantly for Andrew Wylie, the accurate inventory costs from Shed syncs into the actuals, providing FMSWA with real-time costing on a field-by-field basis.
Andrew Wylie concludes with: “If you want to streamline your accountability, budgeting, and record keeping, Agworld is the way to go. Everything's in front of you: accessible, accurate, and up to date. Agworld isn't just part of our operation, it's central to how we manage, grow, and succeed.”
"We used to do one or two stocktakes a year, often without knowing where products went. With Shed we now know exactly what our inventory is and as a result we carry 25-30% less chemical across the group, freeing up over a million dollars in working capital."Andrew Wylie FMSWA, Managing Director
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