{"id":11671,"date":"2020-06-18T10:50:06","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T14:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=11671"},"modified":"2025-06-09T16:25:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T20:25:31","slug":"recordkeeping-farm-success-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2020\/06\/18\/recordkeeping-farm-success-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Why recordkeeping is “one of the most essential pieces of farming today”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog is authored by Bethany Baratta, senior writer at Iowa Soybean Association. It originally posted on the\u00a0Iowa Soybean Association Newsroom<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Devoting adequate time and attention to maintaining records that blend agronomic and financial data is key to farm business success, especially in tight or low margin environments.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think recordkeeping is one of those overlooked parts of farm businesses,\u201d says Dave Walton, an Iowa farmer and Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) District 6 director. \u201cIt takes a little extra time to do it, but you learn so much more by taking that extra time. It helps you make really, really comfortable, solid decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, evaluating every practice and every field through records management helps farmers make more informed decisions that can achieve better financial and environmental outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only manage it if I can measure it\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Recordkeeping is a helpful way to show, for example, if a conservation practice on the farm, like reduced tillage or cover crops, pays off.

“Recordkeeping is one of the most difficult and most essential pieces of farming today.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/p>\n

Walton uses a software package on his farm that integrates both agronomic and financial data. Investing in this system allows him to apply a cost to every pass that goes across the field, figuring in the price of diesel, labor costs, equipment depreciation and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only manage it if I can measure it,\u201d Walton says. \u201cIf I don\u2019t know what it cost me to put in an acre of corn or the difference in yield where I had a cover crop and where I don\u2019t, I can\u2019t manage it effectively. This gives me data I can use to make those management decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using agronomic and financial records, Walton found a cost savings to converting all his acres from conservation tillage to no-till. He has fine-tuned his nitrogen plan by taking a closer look at various forms, timing and rates that work best in his system.<\/p>\n

More than a decade of financial and agronomic data affirms his decisions on the farm, not guesses or gut feelings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you from experience that what you think is happening and what\u2019s actually happening are two different things,\u201d Walton says. \u201cI\u2019ll trust the data over my gut all day long.\u201d Better recordkeeping can help farmers achieve better financial and environmental outcomes. Here\u2019s how. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Having information at farmers\u2019 fingertips has many advantages<\/strong><\/p>\n

ISA District 9 director Pat Swanson has seen a multitude of benefits from better data and recordkeeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use GPS equipment to monitor our planting and harvesting. This helps us make decisions on conservation practices, fertilizer, cover crops, and to manage our livestock grazing,\u201d Swanson says. \u201cWe do enterprise analysis of all our farms and through our livestock operation. We can see where we are breaking even and where we need to cut costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swanson, a crop insurance agent, says sufficient recordkeeping also helps ensure farmers don\u2019t miss deadlines or potential financial assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring this time of additional government programs popping up (Market Facilitation Program, Coronavirus Food Assistance Program), having your records, yield information and inventories at your fingertips helps you respond and receive additional financial assistance in a timely fashion,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Having accurate records of load logs, bin measurements, yields and sales receipts helps crop insurance agents like Swanson calculate production for crop insurance.<\/p>\n

Making more informed decisions on crop insurance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because of his thorough recordkeeping, Iowa farmer Wayne Fredericks saw a crop insurance premium savings of $6.75 per acre on corn acres due to a lowering of his risk protection policy from 85% to 75%, switching to the Price Loss Coverage program and adding the Supplemental Coverage Option. This option is measured against the county-wide yield history versus his own, so it lowers his costs of coverage.<\/p>\n

Fredericks\u2019 recordkeeping system produces a 14-page farm financial year-end report. It includes accrual basis income and expenses, a balance sheet, listing of assets, liabilities, return on assets and more data that help him ultimately farm better and more sustainably.<\/p>\n

Fredericks adopted strip-till and no-till practices as a result of what he discovered with good recordkeeping. \u201cThat (reduced tillage) was probably one of the single biggest dynamic changes in my whole farming career,\u201d Fredericks says. \u201cIt dramatically changed labor, the investment in equipment, and my costs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Iowa farmer Wayne Fredericks is well known for his conservation practices and good recordkeeping.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An opportunity to identify and reward good stewards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gus Barker sees a variety of recordkeeping strategies among his clients as the president and CEO of First Community Bank in Newell, Iowa. The bank serves four communities in northwest Iowa. The ag portfolio is 80% of the bank\u2019s $100 million business.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecordkeeping is one of the most difficult and most essential pieces of farming today,\u201d Barker says.<\/p>\n

Recordkeeping systems have evolved from the potato chip cans full of receipts that Barker remembers his parents taking to their tax preparer once a year.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s systems, like Walton\u2019s, combine financial and agronomic data to show what\u2019s working on the farm. But it also shows what\u2019s not <\/em>working. This creates the potential to offer more benefits to farmers who have more thorough records \u2014 like the cost savings that Fredericks is seeing in reduced crop insurance premiums.<\/p>\n

Barker says having more data that provides a cost-benefit analysis of on-farm practices like no-till and cover crops could be used in the future to present a case for reduced interest rates on operating loans and increased funding for conservation practices and water quality efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have more data and we can encourage more farmers to help with these studies, I think that gives us the fuel to go and lobby for some of these things,\u201d Barker says.<\/p>\n

Better farming for a better future<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prioritizing and dedicating time to improving the farm business through recordkeeping is the dividing line between farmers who are succeeding and those who are struggling, says Jim Knuth, senior vice president of Farm Credit Services of America, the largest agricultural lender in the upper Midwest with a portfolio of 57,000 customers. Knuth heads the Farm Credit Services of America\u2019s Iowa Retail Financial Services Division.<\/p>\n

Knuth says successful recordkeepers aren\u2019t limited to a certain size of acreage \u2014 he sees good recordkeepers and poor recordkeepers in all sizes of farms. However, he points out that the financial issues can compound quickly without good recordkeeping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout good numbers, you can\u2019t have trends and you can\u2019t understand where you\u2019ve been, where you are, and where you\u2019re going,\u201d Knuth says.<\/p>\n

Contact Bethany Baratta at bbaratta@iasoybeans.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This often-overlooked practice can help farmers achieve better financial and environmental outcomes. Here\u2019s how.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[157,40276,84851,62542,113388,413],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-11671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-data","tag-finance","tag-iowa-soybean-association","tag-no-till","tag-recordkeeping","tag-sustainability"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11671"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15977,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11671\/revisions\/15977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}