Record field work on your plots

A field record says what work was done on a plot, on which day and by whom: a planting, an application of crop protection products or fertilisers, an irrigation or any other field work. The lots harvested on the plot show the season's work in their Story with the weather of each day, and A-REX can advise you when a harvest comes too soon after a spraying.

What a field record is

A field record is a record of your company, like your sites and parties: your company declares it. It is not a fact about a lot, and it never changes a lot, its records or its certificates. With ledger records on, its fingerprint goes on the ledger in the day's anchor (see On the ledger). Lots show it as context, marked Recorded by your company. You can attach the spray record, the agronomist's prescription or an invoice; they stay your company's own evidence.

Record field work

1. Open Sites and select a farm or plot. Its page opens on the Field records tab.
2. Select Record field work.
3. Under Type of work, choose Planting, Application, Irrigation, Other field work or one of your company's own types.
4. Under Where and when, choose one or more plots and the First day; add the Last day if the work took several days (31 at most). Hours are optional. Days and hours are those at the plot. Several plots make one record per plot, each with its own area.
5. Fill in the work: the crop, the area worked and the method; for a planting, the seed rate and the seed lot or nursery; for an irrigation, the water and its Water source; for other work, what was done.
6. Under Who did it, add the person and, where the law asks for one, their licence, or a contractor from your directory. Add notes and documents if you have them.
7. Select Record.

Areas, spray volumes and water are typed and shown in your units (ha or ac, L/ha or gal/ac, mm or in), as set with Units in the header.

Your company's own types of work

Work that the built-in kinds do not cover, such as pruning, mowing or scouting, can have its own type with the fields your team fills in. An owner or admin defines it in Processes and stages and publishes it (how).

1. Open a farm or plot in Sites and select Record field work.
2. Under Type of work, choose your type, for example Pruning. The list marks it Your company's type, or Defined by the organization.
3. Fill in the type's fields, below the plot and the days: for pruning, for example Plants pruned and Tool. A type may also ask for the area or the crop, or leave them out.
4. Select Record.

The type's fields come in its sections and widths. Some appear only when an earlier answer calls for them, and may then be required; if you change that answer, the field goes away and its value is not kept. A calculated field fills in by itself, and a locked field cannot be changed once recorded.

The record follows the type's current version and keeps it if the type changes later. Its panel, the lot's Story and the field register show the type's name and its summary fields. A confidential field is kept encrypted and shows only in the record's panel, to your company's people. In a file to import, write the type's Code in the work_type column and each field in the column named by its Name in files and imports.

Applications and tank mixes

• A tank mix is one record with several products, up to 10: select Add product for each one.
• Write each product's name as on its label, its Type of product, its Active ingredient and its Dose in the label's unit. The dose is kept as typed, never converted.
• Registration: choose where the product is registered (the EU, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and other countries, or Other) and type its number as printed. Any country works; A-REX does not look the number up.
• Pre-harvest interval (days) and Re-entry interval (hours): from the label, for this crop. The record keeps the longest interval of its products.

Details buyers and schemes ask for

Food-safety schemes, buyers and, in the EU, the rules on plant protection records ask for more than the product and the dose. Every one of these is optional: fill in what you have, on the record of an application unless said otherwise.

• Crop EPPO code (every type of work): the crop's code from the EPPO Global Database, for example COFAR for arabica coffee. Pick a common crop from the list or type any code of five or six letters or digits. The crop name you typed stays as it is.
• Target or reason: the pest, disease or weed treated, or why a fertiliser or other input was used.
• Growth stage (BBCH): the crop's stage on the day, from 00 to 99, each worded by its main stage, for example 59 · Inflorescence emerging.
• Recommended by and Prescription number: the agronomist or company who recommended the application and the number of the prescription. They stay apart from the licence of the person who applied it, under Who did it. A prescription number needs who issued it.
• For each product: its Batch number as printed on the pack, its Supplier, and Allowed in organic production (Yes, No or Not stated). That mark is your own statement: A-REX does not check it.
• For a fertiliser: N (%), P₂O₅ (%) and K₂O (%) as on its label, for example 15-15-15.
• For an irrigation: the Water source, for example a well, a river or the public supply.

The record's panel and the field register show them; the target and the growth stage also show in the lot's Story. The import template has a column for each.

Drafts from the assistant and integrations

The assistant and integrations can prepare field records, but only as drafts. A draft has a Draft tag, gets no weather and is read by no check. Open it on the Field records tab of the site in Sites, check it and select Confirm: only then is it recorded. People who record work in the console record it directly.

Edit or void a record

Open a record from the Field records tab of its site in Sites and select Edit to correct it. A record keeps its type of work: to change the type, void the record and record the work again.

Void asks for a reason. A voided record is never deleted: it stays readable with Show voided records, but it no longer shows on lots, gets no weather and is read by no check. Under Technical details, the Content fingerprint changes with every edit, and the audit trail keeps who changed what and when, with the old and the new fingerprint.

Import from a file

1. Open a farm or plot in Sites and select Import from a file.
2. Select Download the template and fill it in: one row per product, and rows with the same group make one tank mix. Name each plot as in the directory. A row whose external_ref matches a record already on the plot updates that record.
3. Drop the CSV file (up to 20 MB, any number of rows). A-REX reads it in the background and checks every record; you can close the window meanwhile. What will be recorded then shows each record as A-REX reads it, with the counts at the top.
4. A record with an Error says which and how to correct it, and is never stored. A record with a Warning looks like one already on the plot (same day and kind, without a reference): it starts skipped, and you can switch it to Store if it is new. Switch off Store for any record you leave out.
5. Select Store records. The records are stored in parts with the progress shown; a record that can no longer be stored is listed with the reason, and the others are kept.

A harvest is not a field record: it is recorded as a lot. A row of kind harvest is an Error that says so; register the harvest in Harvests & lots instead.

If you close the window before storing, the import waits for you: the Sites page and the plot's page show A field-record import is waiting with Continue. Its close button discards the import once you confirm with Discard import. An import nobody finishes is discarded on its own, with its file, 30 days after it was sent.

Where field records show

• The site's page: the Field records tab lists the work, newest first, with filters by type and year. Select a record to see its products, documents and weather.
• A lot's Story: a lot harvested on the plot shows the work of the season before its harvest (from the last planting, or the 365 days before), each record with its weather.
• A lot's Origin tab: Field records before harvest gives, for each plot, the work recorded and the last application with its pre-harvest interval, with a link to the plot's field records.

Open a lot in Lots to see them there.

Field records and facts of the whole company are listed in Sites, on the Field records and Facts tabs, newest first. Like the other lists, they follow the product lines chosen in the header. Select a row to open the record on its plot, lot or site.

Start automations and agents

Each record of field work, once recorded, can start an automation or an agent: Field work recorded in Automations and in an agent's start. Conditions read what was done (a planting, an application, irrigation, other work or one of your own work types), the plot, the crop, the day, the days since the plot's last planting and, for your own work types, their numbers and choices: for example "a stand count below 3 plants per metre in the first 30 days". Drafts and records still waiting for confirmation start nothing; an import starts one run per record, so you can leave imports out with where it was recorded.

A day after a record can start one too: Days after field work (for example 7 days after each planting, when the stand count is due). Pick the kind of work (or one of your own work types) and the days; it starts once for each record on that day, in your company's time zone, up to 3 days late for a record entered late, never for a voided record. "Between days 7 and 21 after each sowing" is two starts: day 7 to ask for the count and day 21 to check it was done.

On the ledger

When your company has Ledger records on, each confirmed field record goes on the ledger in one anchor a day, after the day is over everywhere. The record's panel shows where it stands, under On the ledger:

• Waiting for tonight's anchor: confirmed, not on the ledger yet.
• In tonight's anchor: on its way.
• Anchored on the ledger with the day: its fingerprint is on the ledger.

Only a fingerprint of the record goes on the ledger, never its values, the operator or where the plot is. If you edit an anchored record, the next anchor covers the new version. Check against the ledger, under Technical details, compares the record with the ledger and says whether it matches. To turn ledger records on, or to anchor the day's records now, see Processes and stages.

The weather of each record

Once a record is confirmed and the day is over at the plot, A-REX adds the weather at the plot from OpenWeather and ERA5, as it does for a harvest (why a harvest shows the weather). An application also gets the weather of the day after its last day, because rain soon after a spraying can wash the product off. A plot without a location gets no weather: add its location in Sites.

Advice on applications

The check set Field records (advice) reads your company's own field records and the weather:

• A harvest within the pre-harvest interval (medium): a lot was harvested on a plot fewer days after an application than the pre-harvest interval recorded for it. Check the label for this crop, or have the lot tested for residues before you sell it. If the record is wrong, correct it.
• Rain right after an application (low): 10 mm of rain or more at the plot on the day of an application or the day after, by every weather source that answered. Check whether the crop needs another treatment.

Both are advice from your own records, never a fault, and never say whether a lot is safe. They start on trial: in Checks, read the trial report and choose Put this version in use now when you want them to open findings.

Who sees the operator's name

The name of the person who did the work is personal data. It is stored encrypted and only your company's people see it in the console. The assistant and the checks never read it, and it is left out of the content fingerprint. A contractor is a company of your directory, not personal data.