Ask most agricultural contractors what they got into the trade for and the answer is the work. The tractor, the ground, the satisfaction of a field left right. Nobody says they got into it for the website.
Yet a one- or two-person contracting business carries a second job on top of the first. Somebody has to be found online. Somebody has to answer enquiries that go nowhere, write up terms, take a deposit, and chase an invoice in November for a field topped in August. That second job eats evenings, and it is the part most contractors like least.
We built Emmerdale Agriculture to take that second job off you. You manage the land. We handle the contracts, the online presence, the marketing and the money.
Here is what that means in practice.
The online presence is ours
You don't need a website. You don't need a Facebook page, a Google listing, or a budget for adverts. You don't need to answer the same "how much to top two acres?" message fifteen times a week.
We run adverts on Facebook and Instagram every day, aimed at the people who actually have land: paddock owners, smallholders, equestrian yards, estates. We have built more than 260 local pages, one for every county for each of paddock maintenance, hay and straw, and tractor hire, so someone searching for topping in Wiltshire or hay bales in Cheshire finds a page written for exactly that. And we write the articles that answer the questions people type into Google, like how much paddock topping costs and when to harrow.
All of that is paid for out of our pocket, not yours. It is the same work you would otherwise be doing yourself, badly, at ten o'clock at night. We do it full time, and we measure every click so the money goes where the jobs are.
The marketing arrives as a job, not a lead
The difference between a lead and a job is the hour you spend finding out whether it is real.
Every job that reaches you has already been through that hour. We check it over before it goes out, and it comes with what you would otherwise ask on the phone: the acreage, often measured off a boundary the customer drew on a map, the postcode district, access notes, gate width, and photographs. Enough to price sitting in the yard, without a wasted trip to look at it.
You only hear about the counties you cover and the services you do. Anything you don't do, you never see. The job comes by email, and by text if you want one, with one tap to price it and one tap to pass. Passing costs nothing and does not count against you.
The contract is ours too
When a customer books through us, they are booking under our customer terms and our service charter, not a set of conditions you had to draft yourself. The customer agrees to those terms before anything is paid. You agree to one set of contractor terms when you join, and the same terms cover every job after that.
The important parts of that arrangement:
- The customer pays a deposit to book. So nobody turns up to work that was never really going ahead.
- The balance falls due once the work is done and signed off, or automatically three working days after you mark it complete if the customer neither confirms nor raises a problem.
- Work done through us is covered by our own public liability policy. You do not need to hold cover of your own to take jobs from us.
- If the customer doesn't pay, that is ours to deal with. We chase it, and will pursue it formally if it comes to that. You are not the one making those phone calls.
What you are responsible for is the work itself: contact the customer within 24 hours of winning the job, turn up on the day you agreed, and do the job as described. What you are qualified and ticketed to operate stays your responsibility, as it would for any independent business. We don't sit in judgement on that, and we don't need to see the paperwork.
The billing is one invoice, to us
You never invoice the customer. You never take a card payment, set up a bank transfer, or send a reminder.
The customer pays us: a deposit when they accept your price, and the balance when the work is signed off. When the job is done, you send us one invoice for your full quoted price and we pay it once the balance has cleared. One invoice, one payer, every time.
The price you quote is the price you are paid. Our margin sits on top of your number and the customer pays it, so nothing comes out of your invoice. There is no joining fee, no monthly fee, and no commission deducted from what you are owed.
What stays yours
Everything that matters.
Every price is yours. We never quote on your behalf and we never change the figure you give us. Which jobs you price and which you pass are yours to decide, with no quota and no obligation. The counties you cover and the services you offer are yours to set, and to change whenever you like. And the customer relationship, once you have won the job, is yours: you get their details, you speak to them directly, and if they want you back for the next job, they can ask for you by name next time.
We are not between you and the work. We are between you and the admin.
What it costs
Nothing, for the free account. Registration is free, quoting is free, and there is no monthly fee.
If you want a head start, premium membership puts new jobs in your area in front of you before anyone else, and carries a smaller margin on your prices so they land cheaper for the customer. It is £20 a month or £199 a year, and it is optional. The free account still gets every job.
Who it suits
Agricultural contractors with their own machinery, from a one-tractor operation upwards. Whether you top a handful of paddocks around other work or run a full contracting business, the jobs are the same jobs. More than 250 contractors have joined so far, across England, Scotland and Wales.
If you would rather spend your evenings on the land than on the laptop, join the network. It takes a few minutes, and the next job comes to you.
