Food and beverage
The field record and what gets asked later
It is kept out of obligation and ends up serving another purpose: it is the only thing that answers when a client asks about a consignment.
The record is kept because it must be, and is often filled in the day before somebody asks for it. And yet, when a client asks why a particular consignment is as it is, or when an alert comes, it is the only document that can answer — because it is the only one linking a field to a date and to what was done that day.
What you will later be asked about a consignment
| Question | Comes from the record if it holds… |
|---|---|
| Which field did it come from? | Harvest recorded by field and date |
| What treatments did it have? | Product, rate and date recorded |
| Were the intervals respected? | Treatment date and harvest date recorded |
| What water was it irrigated with? | Source recorded, where it applies to your crop |
Important
**The left-hand column are a client's questions, not an inspector's — and they arrive far more often than any inspection.** That is the practical reason to keep it current: it is not administrative paperwork, it is what lets you keep a client who is asking whether they can trust that consignment. A record filled in afterwards cannot do that, because the dates match nothing.
What makes it genuinely useful
Watch out
The gap almost nobody bridges, where everything is lost: **between harvest and what goes out on the lorry**. In the field there are plots; in the store there are pallets. If loading does not record which plots go in each consignment, the whole record never connects to the client: you can say what you did in each field and cannot say which field reached them. One line on the delivery note bridges it entirely.
Worth knowing
Which entries are mandatory, in what detail and for how long they must be kept depends on the crop, the destination and the applicable rules, plus whatever each private certification requires. **Your agronomist or adviser settles that**; here we explain why keeping it current pays off even if nobody asked.
›Is recording it on a phone acceptable?
Yes, if done the same day and then preserved.
›Do I have to record by field?
Without it you can bound nothing later. It is the useful unit.
›Can my clients ask for it?
They will ask, and more often than the authorities do.
A real case
The situation
The record is filled in the day before an audit and the dates match nothing.
What you do
- Records on the day, even on a phone, with the right date
What you get
The record can answer client questions, not merely pass a review.
The situation
A client asks about a consignment and nobody knows which fields it came from.
What you do
- Records on the delivery note which plots go in each consignment
What you get
What was recorded in the field connects to what the client received.
The situation
Everything is recorded at holding level and one incident means reviewing the whole season.
What you do
- Changes the recording unit to the field
What you get
An incident is bounded to a few hectares instead of the entire harvest.
The situation
The field record is filled from memory at the end.
What you do
- Records at the moment, from a phone
What you get
The data is exact.
The situation
A client asks about one specific consignment.
What you do
- Checks what was recorded on those dates
What you get
You answer from the record rather than from memory.
The situation
The record is on paper and gets wet or lost.
What you do
- Captures and stores it at once
What you get
The record outlives the field.
This article answers
- field record what to write down
- asked for treatments on a consignment
- traceability from the field
- paperwork clients ask farmers for