Learning Outcome no. 2.
MAINTAIN PRODUCTION RECORD
PREPARATION OF PRODUCTION PLAN
Importance of Production Plan
Why Plan? On-farm Rewards
҉Plan farm in the growing season!
҉Make the most productive use of your land.
҉Pace yourself, enjoy your life!
҉Reduce stress and confusion
҉Become a better farmer - keep good records, make good plans.
҉Invest in your future - Planning gets easier each year – just tweak last year’s plan.
Step 1. How much Money do you Need to Earn?
• What are your living expenses?
• What are your farm expenses?
Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-up to Market explains how to make an enterprise
budget for each crop. These calculations compare one crop with another, while not delving into
overhead costs.
❑ In your Crop Journal, record the amount of work done on eachcrop each day:
• Bed prep, cultivating
• Planting, mulching, staking.
❑ Record at each harvest
• weight or count of each crop,
• time spent harvesting and cleaning it;
• money raised from each crop each week.
❑ At the end of the season, add up the total time for each crop
• Divide the income for that crop by the time spent on it, and
• divide the income for that crop by the area, or number of beds.
Step 2 Which Markets will you Sell at?
• New growers are often advised to start with a farmers’ market rather than a CSA the first year, as
you can sell a more erratic supply of crops at market.
• On the other hand, if you have experience from working on another farm, a
commitment to careful planning, and you need that upfront beginning-of - season
cash, you may decide to start a CSA (COMMUNITY SUPPORTED AGRICULTURE) right
away.
• If you have an off-farm job to tide you over, it may be practical to leave the financial
questions for a year, and build on that experience
Step 3 Which Crops are Most Profitable?
Some crops offer more money per area, some are more profitable in terms of time put in.
Step 4 How Much to Harvest
- Your Harvest Schedule
• Decide which crops you want to harvest when, how often and over what length of time,
including quantities.
• For a CSA, make a Share Schedule, telling sharers what to expect when.
•Multiply that up, add a margin for culls and failures, and list how much of each crop to have
ready for harvest each week.
Step 5 How Much to Grow to Achieve Your Harvest Goals
Step 6 Harvest Dates Sowing Dates
• When to sow to meet the harvest dates?
• Find the number of days to maturity (from the catalog).
• Is that number from seeding to harvest or transplant to harvest?
• Work back from each target harvest date, subtracting days to maturity, to give the
planting date.
• Days to maturity in catalogs are generally for spring planting once conditions have
warmed to the usual range for that crop.
‒ If you are starting very early, add about 14 days - seedlings grow slower when cold.
‒ In summer crops mature sooner than in spring.
‒ When growing late into the fall, add about 14 days for the slowdown.
Step 7 When to Sow for Transplants
➢ If the crop is to be transplanted and the catalog doesn’t includethe time to grow the
transplant, add that. See Sustainable Market Farming
➢ Use your own experience or the catalog information, or somewherein
between
➢ In future years you will have your own records to customize your calculations
➢ Extract the dates to sow for transplants, and make your Seedlings Schedule
Seedlings Schedule
Step 8 Maps
Where in the fields to plant each sowing of each crop ?
Start filling your map with your major crops remembering crop rotationand cover
cropping considerations.
Step 9 Packing More in:
Intercropping, Relay Planting and Double Cropping
•Promptly clearing short term crops like beans or cucumbers helps with pest and disease
control and opens up the space for double-cropping or for more cover crops to replenish the
soil
•Fast growing crops like lettuce, radishes and greens can be planted between or alongside
slower-growing crops to generate more income and diversity
•We grow peas with spinach, peanuts with lettuce, okra with cabbage
Step 10 Look at the Overview - Tweak to Make Your Best Possible Plan
• Can’t fit everything in? Drop crops or change your plant quantities?
• Always keep your highest priorities in mind – best markets, signature crops, personal needs.
• Use all available space for food crops or cover crops
• Check timings of seedlings – do you have enough germinating capacity?
• Is it physically possible to do all the transplanting you plan in the time allotted?
• Simplify planting dates, eg squash and cucumbers on the same days.
Step 11 What to Do if Something Goes Wrong: Plan B
Have a brainstorm list to help deal with disasters:
• Do immediate damage control to stop the problem getting worse
• Ask for help from sharers, neighbors, kids,
• Salvage anything you can and process it in some way to sell later.
• Plant some quick-growing crops to substitute for crop failures
• Buy from other local growers to tide you over
• Team up with other growers, share a market booth, save on the rent
• Write down what went wrong and why, so you don’t have the same problem next year
Step 12 Record Results for Next Year’s Better Plan
• Make recording easy to do
•Have a daily practice of writing down what was done that day
•Allow time for that, without losing much of your lunch break
•Delegate to reliable people
•During the main growing season, we don’t do a lot of paperwork.
We record planting dates and harvest start and finish dates.
•At the beginning of the winter, have a Crop Review Meeting, discuss and write up what worked and
what didn’t, to learn from the experience and do better next year.
•Adjust dates to halfway between last year’s plan and whatever actually happened - gradually zero in on
the likely date without wild pendulum swings based on variable weather.
ASSESSMENT
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS
➢ Use ¼ sheet yellow pad paper
➢ Write your name, Grade and Section and Date
1-12. WHAT ARE THE 12 STEPS OF CIRCULAR PLANNING IN FARMING? ( In order)
Activity No. 1
PREPARE PRODUCTION PLAN ACCORDING TO ENTERPRISE
REQUIREMENTS
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Quantity Description
1 ballpen
1-2 sheets bondpaper
1 ruler
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Make your own Production Plan .
2. Write at least 5 crops.
3. Follow the sample below
Sample Template
Farmer: Your name
Date: October 26, 2020
CROP PRODUCTION PLAN
CROP COST CORN CABBAGE LETTUCE PECHAY SPINACH
Seeds Php 50.00 Php 100.00 Php 200.00 Php 65.00 Php 50.00
Fertilizer Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00
Chemical Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00 Php 100.00
Labor Php 500.00 Php 500.00 Php 500.00 Php 500.00 Php 500.00
Other Expenses Php 200.00 Php 200.00 Php 200.00 Php 200.00 Php 200.00
Total Php 950.00 Php 1000.00 Php 1,050.00 Php 965.00 Php 950.00
Total Php 4,915.00
ACTIVITY NO. 2
PREPARE SCHEDULE FOR PRODUCTION ACTIVITIES BASED FROM ENTERPRISE REQUIREMENTS
AND PLAN
MATERIALS NEEDED:
Quantity Description
1 ballpen
1-2 sheets bondpaper
1 ruler
1 calendar
INSTRUCTIONS:
Draw up your list of planting dates, along with varieties and write down what you
actually do.
SAMPLE TEMPLATE
Farmer: Your name
Date: October 26, 2020
PLANTING SCHEDULE
CROP VARIETY BEDS Harvest date Seedling Date Transplant Date Success?
Sweet
Corn 20 Jan-21 26-Oct-20 14-Nov-20 /
Grande F1
Grand
Cabbage Cross Low 10 Nov-20 26-Oct-20 10-Nov-20 /
land
Lettuce Romaine 10 Nov-20 26-Oct-20 10-Nov-20 /
Black Behi
10 Nov-20 26-Oct-20 10-Nov-20 /
Special
Pechay
Geen Giant 10 Dec-20 26-Oct-20 10-Nov-20 /
Spinach
ANSWER KEY
ASSESSMENT
1. HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU NEED TO EARN
2. WHICH MARKETS TO SELL AT
3. WHICH CROPS TO GROW
4. HOW MUCH OF WHAT TO HARVEST, WHEN HARVEST SCHEDULE
5. HOW MUCH TO GROW TO ACHIEVE YOUR HARVEST GOALS
6. CALCULATE SOWING DATES TO MEET HARVEST DATES: FIELD PLANTING SCHEDULE
7. WHEN TO SOW FOR TRANSPLANTS: SEEDLING SCHEDULE
8. WHERE TO PLANT EACH SOWING OF EACH CROPS
9. PACKAGING MORE IN SUCESSION PLANTING
10. ADJUST TO MAKE YOUR BEST POSSIBLE PLAN
11. WHAT DO IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG: PLAN B
12. RECORD RESULTS FOR NEXT YEARS, BETTER PLAN
