Crop Planning & Budgeting Software Module
In the E4 Crop Planning software module, growers plan their crops field by field. They prepare the activities that will take place over the crop year—from soil testing to fertilizer application, seeding to tissue sampling, harvest to transport, and everything in between. Each activity is given a tentative start date, application rates are estimated, and the system computes all planned costs.
As the crop year progresses, the plan is updated and refined. Actual activity dates, application rates, and costs are computed, so the grower has a real-time ongoing calculation of actual vs. planned expenditure. This data is powerful information, not only in the current crop year but also for the year ahead when planning starts again.
For retailers and farming operations, managing many fields will benefit from the addition of the E4 Scheduling software module, representing field activities on a regional map and facilitating efficient vendor assignments and reassignment.
How It Works
- If field parameters are not already in the system, customers configure them using the E4 Gateway module.
- Customers can create crop plans from scratch. More often, they start with crop-specific templates provided by E4.
- For each field activity, customers specify details—planned start date, products to be applied, planned application rates, service costs, etc. Activities involving product applications simply rapid application rates per acre. The system computes overall activity costs per field.
- As the crop year progresses, growers and vendors record actual activity data in the crop plan. This data can be entered manually, but it is often captured by onboard field monitors and uploaded in bulk.
- Planned vs. actual cost and quantity reports can be generated at any time. All activity data is stored in the E4 Data Bank and can be used to refine and improve planning for the following year.
Key Features & Benefits
Detailed Planning, Easy To Use: E4’s crop planning system accounts for every field activity with an associated cost, but customers don’t have to endure hours of data entry. Most crop plans are based on templates that are ready to use after minimal adjustment, and much activity data can be uploaded from files captured by growers’ onboard field monitors.
Available Anywhere, Anytime: If you have a portable computer and internet access in the field, crop plans can be updated onsite while information is top of mind.
Scalable To Meet Your Needs: Whether you have a few employees or many or contract with dozens of service providers or only a handful, your operation can benefit from the Crop Planning module. Used in conjunction with the E4 Gateway module (free to E4 customers), you can make the software available to as many users as you need.
