Farm Records Keeping - A Necessity For Good Farm Management And Profit.

Is keeping farm records really necessary for good farm management and profits?

Agricultural record keeping is simply writing down activities, events, materials, and other aspects of farm operations in a book.

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Some farmers rely on their recollections to store such information. That might work for a while, but only for a short time. Take a look at the summary below.

The knowledge you gain from keeping solid agricultural records is invaluable. So, in this essay, we’ll go through why it’s impossible to avoid maintaining records as a notable farmer.

1. A requirement for loans, insurance, investments, and other financial products.
Before lending money to farmers, lenders, government agencies, insurance firms, and a variety of other entities demand good records. Farmers’ records are sometimes required by Extension Agents of Agricultural Agencies to provide them with good technical advice on their farms. Before offering out loan facilities to farmers, financial institutions and other lenders would need solid records of the farm’s income and expenditure.

2. Farm planning, budgeting, and forecasting are all improved.
Agriculture is a business. Good agricultural record-keeping allows you to plan and forecast realistically. Keeping records can help you figure out which strategies work and which ones don’t. Using expenditure and sales statistics from previous seasons, the farmer may better estimate price fluctuations of inputs and output while budgeting. From proper farm records, the farmer can determine how much money is needed for farm expansion.

3. Improved rainfall and weather pattern forecasting
Records of rainfall frequency and amount throughout time are quite useful. A farmer determines when to sow and when to perform other farm tasks based on the records. Farmers that rely primarily on rainfall also use these statistics as a reference during the growing season. Temperature variations also have a big impact on plants, especially when they’re young. Farmers must consequently have a good understanding of temperature fluctuations at different periods of the year. We recommend that farmers maintain a simple rain gauge and thermometer on hand to measure rainfall and temperature.

4. Keep track of your income and expenses.
Farmers are frequently unable to account for their cash inflows and expenditures properly. This is primarily because they miss and fail to register “little” expenses and incomes (like feeding and costs of phone calls). Keeping appropriate records will provide the farmer with the correct amount of money spent or gained from the farm at any moment of reconciliation. This also aids inappropriate planning and budgeting.

5. Improved farm management
A farmer who maintains track of seed germination rates is in a better position to choose better seeds for the coming seasons. Furthermore, record-keeping aids in determining the optimum crop to grow on a specific type of soil, at a specific time of year, for the highest yield and pest and disease management. The farm keeps records of the bloodline, pests, diseases, feed kinds and consumption, and so on in the case of animals. These records aid in the prevention of inbreeding, the control of pests and diseases, the provision of the finest feed for maximum performance, and much more.

Farmers cannot continue to avoid this work due to time constraints or other factors. As a result, we believe that spending an average of 10 minutes each day on the farm to keep farm records is well worth the effort. It will save the farmer a significant amount of time and money.

How have you kept agricultural records to assist you and your farms?