Record-keeping is capturing, maintaining farm financial and production information.
Record-keeping can be accomplished through a variety of methods; from a basic hand record- keeping method to an elaborate computerised system. Record analysis refers to evaluating farm records.
To keep records is simply to collect relevant information that can help you to you to take good decisions and keep track of activities and production.
Ronald Mugisha, a cattle farmer from Rukungiri, says farming is a business and good farm record-keeping helps the farmer plan and do realistic forecasting.
Recording-keeping provides valuable information on which methods work. The farmer can better predict price changes of inputs and produce from expenditure and sales records kept.
Major types of records are;
- Physical identification (tattooing, ear notching, brands or tags, chains, paint and naming)
- Breeding growth (date of birth, birth weight, date of weaning, weaning weight, sale weight, sale date)
3.Production performance (daily milk yield, milk content, butter fat content, protein, lactation length, milk fed to calves, milk consumed at home, milk sold and milk spoilt)
4.Feeding (available fodder on farm, quantity fed, concentrate supplemented, minerals and left-over)
5.Health (vaccination, dipping or spraying, treatment, de-worming)
6. Financial records.
Mugisha emphasises that keeping farm records is very key for a profitable farm as it helps you track all the activities that have been done on the farm.
“Records guide you to know whether you are doing the right or wrong thing at the end of the month. It is a mirror of what you have been doing on a daily basis,” he says.
