Preparing Cooperative Weigh-Station Receipts for a Yield Briefing | Field Notes
Scale tickets contain more forecast value than most farmers realize — if you organize them by block rather than delivery date alone.
When a Goesan cooperative member brings three seasons of weigh-station receipts to our Chungju office, the first task is sorting — not calculating. Receipts stacked by delivery date mix early and late blocks and hide the pattern we need.
Sort by block code first
Most Chungcheongbuk-do cooperatives stamp a field or member-block code on each ticket. Group by that code, then order chronologically within the group. Photograph unclear stamps before the ink fades; we accept phone photos attached to email.
Note moisture discounts
If the scale applied moisture deduction, write the percentage on a sticky note beside the ticket. Dry-weight comparisons across seasons require that adjustment or your historical trend line skews low in wet harvest years.
What if receipts are missing?
A gap of one season is workable if you have cooperative summary statements. Two missing seasons in a row mean we can only produce a wide-interval forecast until you rebuild the record through plot review visits.