Digital Field Records: Why Excel Is No Longer Enough

Digital Field Records – Why Excel Is No Longer Enough

The field record (Schlagkartei) is the central documentation tool for every agricultural operation. While many farms still rely on Excel spreadsheets, these reach their limits when faced with growing requirements.

What is a field record?

A field record documents all management measures per field (plot) and year:

• Crop type and variety
• Tillage (ploughing, cultivating, harrowing)
• Sowing and planting (date, quantity, seed origin)
• Fertilisation (type, quantity, timing)
• Plant protection (product, application rate, indication)
• Harvest (date, quantity, quality)

Excel vs. digital field record – the comparison

Criterion	Excel spreadsheet	Digital solution
Data entry	Manual, error-prone	Guided entry with validation
Data integrity	No checking	Automatic plausibility checks
Reports	Laborious, manual	One-click export for inspections
Multiple users	Conflicts during simultaneous access	Real-time collaboration
Mobile use	Cumbersome on the smartphone	Native app for use in the field
Waiting periods	Calculate manually	Automatic waiting-period check
Crop rotation	Maintain a separate table	Integrated history view
Backup	Your own responsibility	Automatic cloud backup
Legal compliance	Ensure it yourself	Integrated compliance checks

5 reasons to switch

1. Growing documentation obligations

Since the 2023 CAP reform and the EU Organic Regulation 2018/848, the requirements have increased significantly. GAEC conditionality, the Fertiliser Ordinance and plant-protection documentation require structured data.

2. Cross-compliance inspections

During an on-site inspection, documents must be available immediately. Anyone who first has to gather Excel files together loses valuable time and risks sanctions.

3. Team collaboration

Modern farms work as a team. If the farm manager, the tractor driver and the trainee all work in the same Excel file, data loss is inevitable.

4. Automatic calculations

• Nutrient balances according to the Fertiliser Ordinance
• Waiting periods after plant-protection product application
• Crop-rotation compliance (GAEC 7)
• Set-aside quota (GAEC 8)

5. Traceability over the years

Which crop was on field 12 three years ago? In Excel you have to search through old files. Digitally, the entire history is available at the push of a button.

Practical example: a day with the digital field record

06:00 – Check weather data, plan the day in the dashboard 08:00 – Plant-protection measure on field 7: recorded by smartphone directly in the field 10:00 – Fertilisation on field 3: automatic waiting-period calculation 14:00 – Take a soil sample: link results digitally 17:00 – Daily report automatically generated, team members see updates

Migration from Excel to the digital solution

1. Inventory: Which data is available in Excel?
2. Data cleansing: Create uniform formats
3. Import: CSV upload into the digital platform
4. Parallel operation: Use both systems for one season
5. Full switch: Excel only as a backup

💡 Tip: PermaNatura Profi supports CSV import of existing measures – so no record is lost.

PermaNatura Profi as a digital field record

• Measure types: Sowing, planting, harvest, fertilisation, plant protection, irrigation, tillage, compost, preparations
• Field linking: Each measure is assigned to a plot/bed
• Organic compliance: Automatic check for approved products
• Team access: Multiple users with role-based permissions
• Export: PDF reports for control bodies and certifiers

Conclusion

Excel was a good start, but today's requirements for documentation, compliance and team collaboration exceed the possibilities of a spreadsheet. Digital field-record solutions save time, reduce errors and make farms fit for inspections.