Tips to Keep in Mind for Data Entry

Tips to help prepare you for farm record entry and submission

Becky Scott avatar
Written by Becky Scott
Updated over a week ago

Ready to start entering field records for your contracted fields in order to generate Carbon credits and get paid? We are here to help you get organized! Logging your historical events can take some time, but you will only need to do that once. After that, you just need to enter records for the current year.

To prepare for field record entry, here are some tips to help you succeed:

General Preparation Tips

  • Think about your crop rotations to get a sense of how many years of historic records are likely to be required. Carbon by Indigo requires 3-5 years of historical records prior to your practice change. Check out our help article on this topic!

  • Navigate to the My Carbon Status page in your Carbon account to view which fields are eligible to generate credits as part of this carbon crop. Click on the status in the Task column to view the information required and consider where that information is stored.

  • Start with fields that have events in common with other fields to maximize copying without making duplicates. Check out our guide on how to copy an event from one field to another.

  • There are 2 main components to record entry.

    • 1 - You will enter your historical and current season farm records digitally in your Carbon account. If you don’t regularly use the computer, consider finding a tech-savvy friend or family member who can help.

      • When you start entering records in your account, be sure to use Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari on a desktop or laptop computer.

    • 2 - You will need to provide supporting documentation for some events. This can include your own management records & maps from farm management software, FSA documents, as-applied maps, seed & fertilizer receipts, and other acceptable documentation.

Pro tips on supporting documentation

  • We will need 3rd party documentation to verify attributes such as planting dates, crop, harvest dates, and yield. These can be found through the FSA (Farm Service Agency), Crop Insurance provider, or your farm management software.

  • You can copy over documentation ONLY the first time an event is saved. So make sure you have your documentation ready and attached for any practice-changing event before you copy it to other fields (if you are using the same piece of documentation).

  • Hold on to receipts, they can be used as documentation for crops, cover crops, fertilizer amounts, dates and products, and organic amendment applications.

  • Consider recording local weather data for nearby towns (30 mi radius) indicating when the freeze occurred as acceptable supporting documentation for cover crop winter kill termination events.

  • Take time-stamped photos of tillage events and cover crop seeding. Pictures of the actual seed blend and/or bag tag can be useful.

  • Visit with your retailer early to see what kind of records they can provide in regards to product, rate, and dates of application. Seed invoices can also be useful for proof of crop.

    • If you have an invoice for a specific product such as fertilizer or cover crop seed and it applies to several fields, note which specific fields are covered by that invoice.

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