Record Keeping Software Brings Savings to Cotton Farms
August 28, 2014 
From Cotton Grower Magazine – August/September 2014
As more cotton producers embrace precision technology, the major agricultural companies are taking note. Nowhere is this more evident than in the rapidly expanding world of record keeping software.
In years past, growers have kept scribbled notes in a tattered notepad or a manila folder tucked away in a dusty office. But today, companies like Syngenta are bringing forth software programs designed to streamline and organize these figures – and growers are coming around to the idea that on-farm success can depend largely on keeping an eye on crucial data.
According to Reagan DeSpain, AgriEdge Manager for Syngenta, cotton producers in particular stand a lot to gain from advanced record keeping tools. DeSpain says AgriEdge, a user-friendly record keeping software package, can help prevent application mistakes in a market that could feature four different herbicide-based cropping systems in two years.
“It does offer total on-farm support to these enrolled AgriEdge growers,” DeSpain says. “It offers data-rich total farm management for record keeping solutions that a grower would want to use to make his best, agronomically sound decisions. We’re there to try to help the grower become a better manager of his total farm operations.”
DeSpain and other AgriEdge representatives stress the “total farm” capabilities of the product. AgriEdge allows growers to keep track of everything from the fluctuations of input prices to proper field mapping to farm loan management.
“Our farmers can design a budget based on the crops that they grow, and this can help him with his farm loan and help him with his banker or financial advisor,” DeSpain says.
In states like Arkansas, where farmers are sometimes subject to questions from state-run plant boards, the record keeping technology can be especially helpful.
“Farmers who use AgriEdge will have, at the touch of a button, records of what fields were sprayed, when they were sprayed and the products that were used – right down to the products’ EPA registration numbers,” says DeSpain. “We’ve had good success with growers using the software for that purpose – to be in compliance with some of the regulatory things that come about.”
Growers across the Cotton Belt have seen the value in AgriEdge since its introduction 13 years ago.
“Making sure you don’t overspend has always been, and always will be, the main issue for farming,” says Arkansas cotton producer Pace Hindsley, who utilizes AgriEdge technology. “This program helps to control and watch what you spend on each crop and make sure you don’t overspend. My bottom line has increased by record keeping, by not overspending, by really watching the expense and keeping everything in check.”
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