If you don’t have an accurate cost of production, your yield levels aren’t telling you the whole story. As part of a foundational set of pillars that enable farmers to improve their decisions and operations, accurate, field-level costs are essential.
"What I love about Conservis is being able to see what your inputs are and seeing your return on investment, because that's the bottom line. You can have amazing high yields, but unless you know what's going into producing those yields, then big yields don't matter. Because you could be a big yielder and still lose money if you're not understanding your input costs."
As Ryan says, the bottom line for farmers relies on clear tracking and management of costs - from planting to harvest - and beyond. Robust farm management solutions provide transparency across operational costs, driving more informed decisions for building profit.
According to the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, “Farm expenses such as land, cash rents, labor, farm equipment, and interest expenses continue to increase or are holding near record highs – indicating that inflationary pressure on agricultural input costs continues to be acutely felt by farmers.” With financial implications like these, it is imperative that farmers have tools available to monitor costs and make responsive, real-time decisions.
Manage field & crop level costs
A clear and in-the-moment view of costs from the field level through inputs and beyond empower you to best leverage your resources. A digital farm management solution should include functions such as tracking:
- Purchasing
- Input usage
- Indirect allocations
- Cost of production
- Field profits/losses
"It's breaking that down and looking at those dollars and cents. Especially this year, it's really a focus to get really good values and input costs, because everything has gone up so much in price. We're really trying to watch those dollars and cents [and] for that, Conservis is a really great tool."
Agriculture costs
A strong farm management solution must streamline cost tracking. You risk mistakes and incomplete data analysis when your costs are separated in silos. Conservis brings your critical costs into one bird’s-eye picture and optimizes your data so you can make profitable decisions.
Understand costs to the field level. At the end of harvest, do you know what you did per acre and how much it cost? With a farm management system your answer should be a resounding YES. Trying to retroactively document the hundreds of activities performed on your farm after the fact isn’t realistic - or likely to yield accurate results. You need to capture them systematically - and digitally.
"Using Conservis, we're able to track our cost a lot better for each crop. And even on a field level, so we can estimate what we can afford to pay for rent, and how much we need to sell our crops for."
Pinpoint your cost of production. Understanding your costs is critical to pinpointing your cost of production. When you are able to do this, you can dig deep and go beyond just yield to determine success in reaching your financial goals.
"We no longer need to go through a paper trail to try to come up with the cost of production, which oftentimes used to be just a guess."
See real-time costs so you can make decisions that yield profit. You have to be able to react and adjust as costs on inputs, machinery and labor change with fluctuating circumstances. Reacting with real-time information will always be more empowering than relying on gut instinct alone.
"The reason I pursued technology is I wanted information and I wanted it quickly, and that's the caveat that Conservis provides. It gives you real-time data at your fingertips within seconds."
Field-level costs are key to making full-farm decisions. If you haven’t yet explored how a digital farm management solution can improve your operation - and boost profits - now is the time.