We all know that world records, no matter how silly, are placed in the Guinness Book of World Records. But just because the cattle that you raise and the pesticides and fertilizers you that apply on your farm may not make the Guinness Book of World Records doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t keep those farm records in a record book. This article will focus on the importance of keeping records when you use fertilizer.
Of course, there are several good reasons to keep records on the farm and that’s really no big surprise to anyone. Just like it isn’t a surprise that many record keepers favor using a pen and any handy notebook or piece of paper for record keeping instead of using a computer with a spread sheet or another specialized computer program.
No matter how or why you keep records it is very important to do so for a variety of reasons. A few good reasons to keep records on your farm are to keep up with your calving numbers, herd size, vaccination schedule, farm profits and pesticide and fertilizer applications.
The main reason to keep records of your fertilization habits depends on where you live in the state of Arkansas. If you live in a designated Nutrient Surplus Area (NSA) of Arkansas then your main reason to keep fertilization records is to be able to prove that the legal guidelines are being met. In addition to meeting the regulations record keeping is one of the easiest and very most cost effective best management practices (BMPs) that a farmer can use although it does take a little bit of time and effort.
If you don’t live in a NSA then your main reason to keep records of fertilization habits would be for increasing profit and increasing fertilizer efficiency on the farm. For example, if you know exactly how much fertilizer you put in what field, at what time, with certain weather conditions then you’ll have a record of what worked out and what didn’t work out to be so good. Having this perspective and reasoning for using the record keeping is just the same as relying on your memory, but without the chance of forgetting anything. It is true that record keeping books can be misplaced from time to time, but unlike our memories record books can be found after they have been lost.
