The importance of planning

Planning goes hand in glove with good recordkeeping.

- Bill Kerr

This is a neglected aspect of many farming systems. I realised the importance of planning when, after graduating and working for a large agricultural company, I was given the vegetable portfolio. Soon after I started to grow cabbages on a large scale, a new cabbage variety came on the market. The company that I worked for had planted the same variety for decades, and I felt the need to do large trials with the new variety to find out if it suited our purposes.

I would use three different spacings and planted a trial every few weeks throughout the season. Each crop was weighed when ready and recorded. The records also included the planting and harvesting dates in every case. The time span between planting and harvesting would vary between 80 and 120 days depending on the time of year.