The Brooksville Journal

ACCURATE
RECORDS ON
FARMS ARE BECOMING
OF GREAT IMPORTANCE

One of the most important hand tools you can own and use on your farm or ranch is a common lead pencil.

County Agent Harry J. Brinkley points out that records are becoming increasingly important, and adds that the best way to keep records is to have a notebook handy and make entries as soon as possible. That's where the lead pencil comes in. These notes can later be put into a regular record book.

Lead pencils are probably one of the least-used hand tools of most Florida farms and ranches, says Extension Agricultural Economist Clyde Murphee, but this takes nothing from their usefulness and value. Farmers generally are poor record keepers. They have a strong dislike for anything like keeping a record. As a result, most of them will have trouble preparing income tax returns and making social security tax reports—when the time for making these reports rolls around after the end of the year.

Besides, Mr. Brinkley adds, many Florida farm and ranch operators will find themselves unable to analyze their businesses for weak places because of incomplete, or inadequate records. Production records which don't exist can't be checked: neither can cost records be analyzed unless they have been kept.

Here's what you need to keep a usable farm and ranch record:

1. A record book (available through the County Agent's office).

2. A place to keep the record book together with bills, receipts, sales slips, and other similar papers.

3. The determination to make entries in the record book at the time they occur.

4. The habit of making entries in detail.

Remember, emphasizes the County Agent, that a farm record to be most valuable to you consists of five essential parts: inventories, at both beginning and end of the year; production records of crops and livestock; record of expenses; record of sales and other receipts; and a summary at the end of the year.