Concept · Glossary
Farming-system Code
Also: farming system class, system code
Definition
A ten-class label that matches each field or holding to its broader farming context. Matches diagnoses to the relevant prescription pool, so recommendations always fit the system in question.
The farming-system code is a ten-class label that matches each field or holding to its broader farming context.
Examples of the ten classes:
- Extensive permanent pasture (grazing)
- Rotational arable (conventional)
- Rotational arable (mixed / cover-cropped)
- Agroforestry (silvopastoral)
- Agroforestry (silvoarable, alley cropping)
- Native broadleaf woodland (production)
- Native broadleaf woodland (conservation)
- Conifer plantation
- Wood pasture / parkland
- European traditional wooded-grazing (dehesa, montado, streuobst, pascolo arborato, bocage)
Why it matters. A recommendation that makes sense for an upland sheep system makes no sense on a lowland arable rotation, and vice versa. Behind the scenes, every prescription in EcoIntel’s 40-plus prescription table is tagged by which farming-system codes it applies to. The recommendation engine filters prescriptions through the field’s farming-system code before showing anything to the user.
This means farmers and advisors never see prescriptions that don’t apply to their context: no cover-cropping recommendations for forest managers, no rotational-grazing rules for arable systems. The code is invisible in the report but invisible in the way structural engineering is invisible: present, decisive, and you only notice it when it is missing.