Keeping Track of All Those Acres
March 31, 2010 In January, the Cotton Grower acreage survey revealed that U.S. growers intended to plant 9.9 million acres of cotton in the coming season. Today, USDA numbers projected a much rosier estimate of 10.5 million acres.
Clearly, America’s growers have been changing their minds on planting intentions over the course of the past few months. Many factors played into that change of heart. Weather patterns affected corn planting, input costs shifted and, maybe most notably, cotton prices continued on a steady climb.
But without an accurate method of record keeping, none of those factors mean much to America’s cotton producers. Precision agriculture proponents have likened farming without accurate record keeping to flying an airplane blindfolded. A significant increase in cotton acres on any operation is a valid enough reason to begin effective record keeping practices.
“We think the need for record keeping is always there,” says Clint Ingram, Program Specialist for MapShots, Inc. “Because if you don’t know your bottom dollar, of how much it took to grow that pound of cotton or that bushel of corn, then you don’t know what you need to budget for.”
MapShots had that practical, efficient mindset when Cotton Incorporated came calling in hopes of creating cotton-specific software components for record keeping. Cotton often requires more inputs and more dynamic business practices than other crops, and therefore greater attention to record keeping practices is needed. Cotton Incorporated was the first to recognize this need, and tabbed two leaders in record keeping – MapShots, Inc. and Red Wing Software – to address the issue.
In collaboration with Cotton Incorporated, the two companies developed a cotton component to the previously existing agricultural record keeping software, EASi Suite. Likewise, Red Wing updated its product, Center Point, with cotton specific features. Both companies say keeping the programs effective while user-friendly was a major objective.
“You never want to get to a point where you’re having paralysis through analysis. If you can’t manage the information you’re collecting, it’s not going to do you any good,” says Mathew Hilton, Sales Consultant with Red Wing Software.
With more growers across the U.S. electing to put cotton in the ground in the coming season, the need for simplification in record keeping is heightened. To aid with this, EASi Suite and Center Point allow for data to be broken down into easily identifiable groups and sub-groups. Under “Expenses”, for example, a grower can breakdown his spending into “fertilizer,” “seed,” and “fuel.” Similarly, profit tracking can be categorized and followed throughout the year.
As many growers prepare to switch their acreage out of grains and into cotton for the first time in two or three years, the need for flexible software is apparent. Both EASi Suite and Center Point software feature the ability to seamlessly handle multiple crops that may change on a season-to-season basis.
“I have the ability to track profit centers. So I can apply that to what I’m actually growing, no matter what the commodity may be,” says Hinton.
The software even has a feature to assist growers with tax preparation – a feature that many producers would welcome at this time of year. The theme with both pieces of software, it seems, is to simplify a task that would otherwise be complex.
“Our operating model is to build it complex, but to make it simple,” says Tim Taylor of MapShots, Inc.
(for more on the creation of a cotton component for EASi Suite and Center Point)
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