PRIVATE DATABASES FOR AGRICULTURALISTS

In this digital age, organizing and managing data efficiently is crucial. Whether you are keeping records on people, products, livestock, and/or fields, managing projects, or planning events, having a reliable system to store and access your data can make a significant difference in efficiency as well as quality of decisions. This short article will:

  • introduce you to the concept of private databases
  • give you some ideas of events or activity type data that you will probably find much more useful in a digital format
  • point you to existing templates that you can simply duplicate, refine, and deploy in your operation
  • point you to online resources to rapidly get you to a productive stage with your own private databases

What is a Private Database?

A private database is a personalized, secure repository for storing and managing data. Unlike public databases, which are accessible to anyone, private databases are restricted to specific users that you control, and this ensures data privacy and security. It could be stored locally on a computer drive or in the cloud behind your personal credentials. Using a private database for event or activity data offers numerous benefits, including improved organization, easy accessibility, and the ability to customize the database to fit your specific needs.

Big data and data science certainly have their place, but you don’t have to be a data scientist to gain practical insights from your own data. Simple things like sort, filter, average, can help with decision making. For those with savvy spreadsheet skills, pivot tables can be a great way to summarize larger tables of data; but you don’t always need something complex. If you have basic spreadsheet skills, private databases are well within reach. Spreadsheets can be set up as a database, but database software brings some benefits you just can’t achieve with spreadsheets alone.

Spreadsheet files are workbooks with worksheets that contain rows and columns to fill with text, formulas, hyperlinks, etc. In a private database, there can be tables and in those tables are columns (or data fields) and rows (different records). For example a database of livestock vaccination records might have columns for animal ID, date, treatment medication, and treatment dose. Each row would be a record for a different animal or animal group.

A more complete reference and explanation of this approach to record keeping is in a Journal of the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. You may also want to read this to learn a little more about tidy data and get more ideas about private database applications on farms.

Witkowski, N., Buckmaster, D., Basir, M., and Sakata, H. 2024. Practical Database Solutions for Digital Agriculture: Simple and Private. Journal of the NACAA. 17(1). ISSN 2158-9429.

What is Airtable?

Airtable is a user-friendly commercial platform that allows you to create and manage private databases with ease. It offers a free tier that includes many features suitable for beginners and small projects. With Airtable, you can create custom tables, link records, and use various views to organize your data effectively. It is an excellent tool for managing event or activity data, providing a balance between simplicity and functionality. Airtable has an intuitive interface that makes it easy for novices to get up and running quickly.

A powerful feature of Airtable that makes it a step above spreadsheets alone (as a database) is that you can easily generate a “form view”. That form view can be shared with workers so they can make records wherever they are as they do work using a slick app-like form on a smartphone or tablet. There is separation of privileges, though. Access to the database itself (the data therein) is controlled independently of sharing the link to fill in a form. For example, I might want my farm workers to enter data regarding field activities or grain deliveries, but I might not want them to have access to see or edit the full database.

What are events and activities?

Events or activities are things that happen for a purpose. Sometimes, the details of those events or activities are critical context for outcomes and other layers of data we might have. For example, writing a check for $128 for a vehicle battery is an event. It could be helpful to have that recorded digitally for accounting and warranty purposes. Spraying a field at a certain time on a date with a particular chemical blend using a particular sprayer is an event. The details are important for tracking completion of work, assessment of efficacy of the chemical, proof of “no drift”, and accounting.

Practical and Simple Database Applications in Agriculture

Farmers and agriculturalists can use databases to track or keep records on many things. Some ideas include:

  • Field crop activities
  • Grain or input supplies inventories
  • Grain marketing commitments and grain delivery actions
  • Beef calving records
  • AI breeding records
  • Livestock treatments
  • Equipment repair and maintenance records
  • Income and expenses (like your own Quickbooks “lite” for free)
  • Custom crop scouting reporting

Keep reading for links to specific application templates and resources sufficient for you to build your own private databases.

Resources and Tutorials

To help you get started, we developed some complete templates of private databases that you may duplicate, refine, then use in your operation. Each of these templates is released in the open-source way; it is offered to all for use as is or for others to revise. These templates are briefly explained here, but the hyperlinked web post about each one contains more detail and each includes a short series of YouTube videos (always less than 45 minutes total) that explain completely how to put the template to use in your operation. If you have some familiarity with spreadsheets, using these templates should be straightforward. Click the hyperlinks to learn more.

Digital Field Records is a template for keeping track of the who, what, where, when and how regarding each field or management zone on a farm. It is set up to keep track of tillage, planting, spread/spray, harvest activities. Details of seed, population, time spent, products used, etc. are part of the structure. This database is applicable to both row-crop and forage operations.

Grain Marketing and Delivery Records is a template for tracking decisions/commitments for futures contracts, hedges, etc. Having this information in one place will facilitate reconciliation of contracts and by having your previous decisions saved in a tidy format can facilitate your best next decisions.

Horticultural Crop Activity Records is a template similar to the digital field records template mentioned previously, but there are some things we do to horticultural crops like trees, bushes, vines etc. that are different than things we do to field crops. If you have beds, high tunnels, fields, or orchards with fruits, vegetables, or other specialty crops, this template may be for you.

Food Safety Modernization Act Records is a toolkit of very concise databases related to FSMA records that are now required. Simply using the toolkit will assure you are keeping the required data in your own private “place”.

We will also release more Airtable database templates in time. Our current projects (almost ready to release) include beef calving records and AI breeding records.

Building Your Own Database

If this article whets your appetite for going digital but the previous templates just don’t fit your need, then check this post titled “Simple Private Databases – Make Your Records Digital Simply”. By reading that post and watching the accompanying video series, you can learn how to build your own private database for other things in less than one hour. If you do the tutorial actions while watching the video, you will have your own income and expense database. That post also points you to a vehicle expense database you may duplicate and customize.

Summary

Private databases offer a powerful solution for organizing and managing event or activity data. When this data is in digital form, it is easier to share with trusted advisors, mine for insights, or simply tally for preparing financial statements or compute metrics regarding your enterprises. Airtable offers a blend of a user-friendly interface and robust features making it an excellent platform for novices to explore. Go digital!