AgriBale Ltd

We caught up with Doug Price, Managing Director of AgriBale Ltd, to hear how Tabula has transformed their harvest season. 

One of the UK’s largest straw contracting businesses sought better visibility, safer workflows, and more efficient harvest coordination. Tabula delivered the all-in-one system to bring their fleet, crews and logistics together.

“Tabula makes every seasonal operator feel like an experienced full-time member of the team from day one. It puts all my knowledge - of our farms, roads, stack sites, people and hazards - right there in the cab with them.”

The business 

AgriBale Ltd is one of the UK’s largest straw contracting operations, managing more than 125,000 bales every season across a fleet of Hesston Balers, JCB telehandlers and trucks. Led by Managing Director Doug Price, the business brings on a team of up to 30 additional seasonal staff to keep up with the intense demands of harvest.

The challenge 

AgriBale’s continued growth has brought a new level of complexity. With dozens of machines and operators spread across wide geographic areas, Doug was looking for a more connected way to run the operation - one that would improve communication, reduce admin, and ensure every member of the management crew had the same clear picture of what was happening in the field.

As pressure on logistics, safety and efficiency increased, and with a large seasonal workforce that needed fast onboarding, it became clear that AgriBale needed a platform that could keep up with high work volumes, clear job allocation, live tracking of a fleet across multiple manufacturers, simplified route planning, and to provide reliable proof of work for clients.

“We put Tabula to the test through a full season across our whole fleet and it was a game-changer. It gave visibility to our team, confidence to our operators and clarity to our clients.”

The solution

Tabula worked closely with AgriBale to tailor the system to the specific demands of a large-scale baling operation.

What Tabula delivered:

• GPS-guided job instructions for operators

• Customised straw inventory management, refined for UK workflow

• Safe-route mapping, avoiding weight-restricted bridges and no-go zones

• Tabula Live for real-time job and fleet visibility

• Enhanced in-cab information display across the fleet

• Adapted Field Support App, enabling crews to report issues and view key info on the ground

• Fully digital job management, replacing paperwork and manual updates

Unique to Tabula is the direct communication between the control base and the tractor cab. Operators received up-to-date instructions and instant changes, while supervisors could monitor progress live - removing the need for back-and-forth calls and reducing disruption for both operators and control staff.

Results at a glance

AgriBale put Tabula to the test across a full harvest season. The impact was immediate:

Greater visibility, no confusion

Live fleet data gave managers a clear picture across a large seasonal workforce, cutting bottlenecks and admin time. Detailed job information and visibility meant far fewer queries from operators.

Faster onboarding and improved productivity

Clear digital instructions helped 30 seasonal workers get up to speed quickly and work with confidence, lifting productivity from day one. 

Safer and smoother operations

Planning safer routes meant machinery could avoid weight limits, no-access roads and high-risk areas, while pre-start checks supported consistent operator safety. 

Communication without the phone calls


Live, one-to-one communication and clear job visibility eliminated unnecessary calls and messages, reducing distractions for operators and easing the burden on the control base during peak harvest. 

Logistics that kept up with the season

With real-time updates and customised straw inventory management, coordinating balers, loaders and trucks became far more efficient - no delays, no wrong turns.

Reliable records and accurate billing

Digital proof of work removed the burden of record-keeping from operators. Automated records replaced spreadsheets, saving hours of admin time and ensuring faster, reliable billing.

“Once I saw what it could do in harvest conditions, I knew there was huge potential for contractors here. I joined Tabula because I believe in where the technology is going, and I want to help bring that future to the UK.”

Looking ahead 

Running Tabula at scale across one of the UK’s busiest baling fleets laid the groundwork for Tabula’s wider UK expansion, and ultimately led to Doug’s appointment as Tabula’s Managing Director (UK). 

With a successful season behind them, AgriBale is now working with Tabula on broader harvest-suite tools to streamline logistics, improve safety and optimise large-scale agricultural requirements. This marks the next step in delivering safer, smarter, more connected contracting operations across the UK.