From Farm to Cloud

Almost every farmer I know wants to be left alone so they can focus on farming. Gone are the days when a farmer can just be a farmer and ignore everything else. In our fast-moving digital age, farms that do not leverage technology adequately will struggle to compete with those that implement it thoughtfully. In particular, all farms should use some form of digital record keeping for compliance and farm management.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where every certifier, customer, and government agency believes they should have a say in how you run your farm, creating a significant compliance burden for farmers. In the past, it was easy to get through inspections and other compliance obligations with a messy stack of paper, some hand waving, and a little sweet talking but those techniques no longer suffice.

I’ve heard too many stories of farmers struggling, not because they’re doing anything wrong, but because they don’t have the records to prove otherwise. From an inspector’s perspective, if it’s not documented, it didn’t happen. As such, a farmer’s records must be accurate and available at a moment’s notice, whenever an inspector decides to show up. In an attempt to keep up with these ever-growing compliance requirements, most farmers’ default response is to create mountains of paperwork.

While a system that relies heavily on paper may be effective, it’s hardly ever very efficient. Paper records are time consuming to organize/retrieve, easy to lose, and, in our digital world, are often required to be digitized anyway, which takes time and introduces chances for errors. In addition, it’s hard to collaborate on paper records because you can only access them if you’re holding the piece of paper in your hand.

In comparison, with the right digital record-keeping system, you only need to enter the record one time, in one place, and then it’s immediately searchable and available no matter where you are in the world for whoever needs to see it. All these benefits add up to mean less administrative time wasted on recording keeping, fewer mistakes, easier collaboration, less stress when audit time comes around, and the ability to access your records no matter your location.

Perhaps more exciting than compliance, digital record keeping also allows you to better manage your farm. Because digital record-keeping systems digitize data in real or near real time and digital data can be easily manipulated to provide insights, farmers are able to make better, more timely decisions about their business. On my family’s egg farm, our flock production records were purely paper-based and required significant time to enter into spreadsheets so that we could understand how well each flock was performing. This meant that our data was often 1-2 weeks old by the time it was digitized. Switching to a digital record-keeping system meant that our records were always accurate and up to date, allowing us to respond quickly to production changes in our flocks.

Adopting new technology can feel overwhelming and expensive, but often 80% of the value of technology can be captured with minimal complexity and cost. Depending on your needs, it may be enough to simply scan all of your paper documents into a digital file sharing service such as Google Drive or Dropbox. This simple solution means that it’s easy to search for your records and they are always available, regardless of location. There’s nothing less fun than trying to dig through a box of paper during an audit to find the one specific record the auditor requested as opposed to quickly pulling up the record in a few seconds on your computer.

A slightly more complex but still cost effective solution could be using Google Sheets and Google Forms to eliminate paper records and capture information through a digital form that syncs directly to a spreadsheet. Digital record keeping systems culminate in full fledged compliance and farm management systems designed for specific industries such as dairies, vineyards, or egg laying hens. These systems may be more complex and more expensive, but they pay for themselves by reducing administrative time, simplifying compliance, and improving reporting.

While it can often feel intimidating to adopt new technology, in my experience, when implemented correctly, the benefits and ROI far outweigh the cost and growing pains of switching to something new. Digital record keeping makes it easier to manage a farm’s many compliance requirements, saves on admin time, reduces errors, and allows you to make better decisions about your farm. Just think of it as another tool in your tool belt, allowing you to spend less time pushing paper and more time being a farmer.

This article was originally published in the May 2025 edition of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau Farm News