A reliable harvest record turns a busy market-garden season into useful business information. This guide shows how to track crop yields, quality, labor, losses, sales channels, and bed-level performance, then use those records to compare crops and make better planting decisions. It includes practical templates and repeatable formulas for yield per bed, yield per square foot, revenue per planting, and crop profitability.
Overview
Harvest records are more than a list of what left the field. They connect production decisions to outcomes: how much a planting produced, how much time it required, what portion was marketable, and which sales channel returned the most value.
For a small farm or market garden, begin with one record for each planting or bed. A planting may be a single bed of carrots, a succession of lettuce, or a block of tomatoes grown over several months. Keeping these units separate prevents a strong harvest from hiding a weak one elsewhere.
A useful record answers five questions:
- What was planted? Record the crop, variety, planting date, bed or field, and succession number.
- What was harvested? Record date, quantity, weight, grade, and units sold or held back.
- What did it take? Record direct inputs and labor time for planting, weeding, harvesting, washing, packing, and delivery.
- What was lost? Separate field loss, culls, spoilage, unsold product, and product used by the household.
- What came back? Record sales by channel, fees, discounts, refunds, and net revenue.
These records support both production planning and small farm profitability tracking. They can also reveal nonfinancial issues. A crop may have acceptable revenue but require harvesting on a day when your market schedule is already full. Another may have modest yield but fit a reliable customer demand and require little preparation.
How to estimate
Use a consistent workflow from planting through final sale. A spreadsheet is convenient, but a paper clipboard or printable harvest log works if entries are transferred to a summary sheet regularly.
1. Create a planting record
Assign each planting a simple identifier, such as B3-LT-1 for bed 3, lettuce, succession 1. Record the bed length and width, planted area, variety, number of rows or plants, seed or transplant quantity, and planting date. If you use succession planting, give every succession its own identifier rather than combining the season into one total.
2. Log every harvest
Record the date, harvested quantity, unit, and quality grade before the produce leaves the farm. Weighing the marketable harvest is usually more useful than estimating by crate or bunch alone. If you sell by count, record both count and weight when practical so future comparisons remain consistent.
Use clear grade labels. For example, marketable can mean product that meets your normal customer standard; seconds can mean edible product sold at a discount; cull can mean product not sold because of damage, disease, poor size, or appearance. Define your terms in the spreadsheet so everyone records them the same way.
3. Record time by task
Track labor in minutes or decimal hours and attach it to the planting. Separate field work from postharvest work where possible. Useful categories include bed preparation, seeding or transplanting, irrigation, weeding, scouting, harvesting, washing, grading, packing, and delivery. If several crops are handled together, divide the time using a reasonable method and note the assumption.
4. Record sales by channel
Enter the quantity sold, selling unit, gross sales, channel, and any channel-specific fee or discount. Channels might include a farm stand, direct orders, a farmers market, restaurant sales, a CSA share, or wholesale delivery. Record unsold product separately; do not treat harvested product as revenue until it is sold.
5. Summarize after the planting ends
At the end of the crop cycle, total the harvest and sales records. Then calculate the following:
- Yield per bed = total marketable harvest ÷ number of beds or bed units.
- Yield per square foot = total marketable harvest ÷ planted square feet.
- Marketable percentage = marketable harvest ÷ total harvested quantity × 100.
- Net revenue = gross sales − discounts − selling fees − refunds.
- Revenue per planted square foot = net revenue ÷ planted square feet.
- Revenue per labor hour = net revenue ÷ total labor hours.
- Contribution after direct costs = net revenue − seeds or transplants − amendments − packaging − delivery and other crop-specific costs.
These are decision-making measures, not universal scores. Compare crops grown under similar conditions and use several cycles when available. A short planting window, pest pressure, unusual weather, or a one-time infrastructure task can distort a single result.
Inputs and assumptions
A crop yield tracking spreadsheet is only as useful as its definitions. Set the following assumptions before the season begins.
Area and units
Choose one area unit for analysis, such as square feet or square meters, and convert all beds consistently. For a rectangular bed, calculate area as length × width. If paths are excluded from planted area, exclude them for every crop. Keep bed length, bed width, planted area, and number of plantings as separate fields.
Weight and sales units
Use one primary weight unit throughout the summary, while retaining the original sales unit in the harvest log. A bunch, bag, basket, head, or pound may be the correct selling unit, but inconsistent conversions can make two crops appear easier to compare than they really are. If you estimate a conversion, label it as an estimate rather than presenting it as a measured result.
Cost categories
Separate direct crop costs from shared farm overhead. Direct costs may include seed, transplants, row cover, crop-specific fertilizer, packaging, market fees, and delivery assigned to that crop. Shared costs such as tools, land, insurance, or general administration can be tracked in a separate overhead section. This keeps the first comparison understandable while leaving room for a fuller enterprise budget later.
Labor assumptions
Record actual time when possible. Include unpaid owner labor if the goal is to understand whether the crop is worth your time. You can multiply hours by a chosen labor rate for a fuller cost estimate, but clearly label the rate as an assumption. The important point is consistency: changing the labor-rate assumption changes profitability even when yield and sales stay the same.
Printable harvest-log template
| Date | Planting ID | Crop/variety | Harvested | Marketable | Seconds/culls | Labor hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bed-level summary template
| Planting ID | Area | Total marketable yield | Net revenue | Direct costs | Labor hours | Revenue/area | Contribution/hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Keep a notes column for conditions that explain the numbers: delayed planting, irrigation failure, disease, heavy weed pressure, a changed price, or a new packing method. Notes make the record useful when you review it months later.
Worked examples
The following figures are illustrative assumptions, not current market benchmarks. Replace them with your own measurements and prices.
Comparing yield per bed
Suppose one lettuce succession occupies a 30-foot bed that is 3 feet wide, or 90 planted square feet. It produces 210 marketable heads, 30 seconds, and 20 culls. Yield per bed is 210 marketable heads. Marketable percentage is 210 ÷ 260 × 100, or approximately 81%. If another succession produces 180 marketable heads from the same area but uses less labor, yield alone does not settle the decision.
Comparing revenue and labor
Assume the first succession generates illustrative net revenue of $420 after selling fees and discounts. Direct costs are $95, and recorded labor is 14 hours. Contribution after direct costs is $325. Contribution per labor hour is $325 ÷ 14, or approximately $23.21 before shared overhead and owner compensation assumptions.
Now compare a second crop with $360 in net revenue, $60 in direct costs, and 8 labor hours. Its contribution is $300, and its contribution per labor hour is $37.50. The second crop produced less total contribution but used time more efficiently. That distinction matters when harvest, washing, and market preparation are the farm's limiting resources.
Comparing turnover
Record the number of days from planting to the final harvestable sale, not just the first harvest. A crop that produces $300 from a bed in 30 days may provide a different planning opportunity from one that produces $500 in 90 days. You can compare contribution per bed-day as:
Contribution per bed-day = contribution after direct costs ÷ number of planted beds ÷ days occupied.
This measure should be interpreted carefully when a bed supports multiple successions. For a succession planting plan, record each cycle separately, include the transition time between crops, and note whether the bed was occupied by a cover crop or left fallow. Related planning decisions are easier when paired with a succession planting planner and a crop rotation plan.
Production records can also explain profitability. If yield drops after poor soil preparation, review your raised-bed soil mix and replenishment practices. If marketable percentage falls because of insect damage, connect the harvest notes to an integrated pest management workflow. The goal is not simply to rank crops, but to identify a fixable cause.
When to recalculate
Update the harvest log after every harvest or delivery, while details are still easy to verify. Review the bed-level summary at the end of each planting, then compare the same crop and sales channel across seasons. Recalculate before ordering seed, setting prices, committing to a CSA quantity, or expanding bed space.
Refresh assumptions whenever pricing inputs change. This includes seed and transplant costs, packaging, market fees, delivery costs, labor rates, and the prices you can realistically receive through each channel. A crop can remain productive while its contribution changes because selling costs or customer prices changed.
Also recalculate when production conditions change: a new bed size, different variety, altered spacing, irrigation upgrade, new wash-pack process, pest issue, or change in succession timing. Keep the old assumptions visible rather than overwriting them so you can explain why results moved.
At the end of the season, choose three actions: continue the strongest crops, test a specific adjustment for borderline crops, and reduce or redesign crops that consistently use more labor than their contribution justifies. Print a new blank harvest log, carry forward the fields that worked, and revise the summary formulas before the next planting. Consistent records, reviewed at the right intervals, turn each harvest into a practical planning tool for the next one.
