At the end of the season I never really know if I made money on each crop. How do I keep simple records that tell me the true profit per crop?
Keep a simple notebook or phone record per crop per season with two columns, money spent and money earned, and you will quickly see real profit. Under costs write seed, fertiliser, pesticide, labour (including a fair value for your own family labour), irrigation and fuel, machinery hire, transport and mandi charges. Under income write every sale with date, quantity and rate. Subtract total cost from total income to get profit, and divide by area for profit per acre, which lets you compare crops fairly. Doing this for a few seasons shows which crops and practices actually pay and where costs are leaking, such as too much fertiliser or costly hired operations. Even a basic record beats guessing. Several free farm record apps exist, but a clean notebook works just as well.
Once I started writing every cost and every sale per crop in a notebook, I found one crop I loved was barely breaking even. The records quietly changed what I plant. Include a value for your own labour or the profit looks falsely high.
Write the cost down the same day you spend, not from memory at season end. I used to forget the small cash payments for labour and transport, which made my profit look bigger than it was. A small diary kept in the field, filled daily, gave me the true figure. The discipline matters more than fancy software.
Once I started writing every cost and sale per crop, I realised one crop I loved growing was barely breaking even. The records changed what I plant. Include your own labour value or the profit looks falsely high.
I use a free farm record app, but honestly a clean notebook with money spent and money earned per crop works just as well. Dividing profit by acreage let me compare crops fairly and spot where fertiliser cost was leaking. Do it for a few seasons and the pattern becomes clear.
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