Do you keep a daily journal on paper?

[Chasingmytail]

Been thinking about this and would make sense to buy a page a day diary and note what we did on the farm (excluding meds etc) Especially with moving them on rotation as we are always thinking of the day we did what. We are so busy here doing other stuff it all gets messy.

Means Id have to get man to get into the habit of not forgetting to do it. Sounds simple idea and I am sure many of you already do it but when you are running other business' and running around is it that easy?

If you start this can it continue without failure????

 

[David.]

That is what I do, sometimes end up writing up a few days if it lapses, but things like phone calls, verbal quotes etc, loads out/in.
Handy when somebody tells you they said whatever 6 weeks ago, and you would have long forgotten without diary entry.

 

[H.M.]

We do exactly what you're talking about, we have a diary and it gets filled in each day (or every few days) we've always done it like that - it's mostly for the contracting, whoever's done a job writes down customer and price etc. then I go through the book each week to copy the details onto invoices, but it's handy to record what's happened here as well. The only problem is actually being able to read what's been written

 

[A Trebor]

Keep daily diary but being an arable farmer lots off blank pages in winter,also got dads that go back to 60's interesting to look back at.

 

[Sid]

Keep daily diary but being an arable farmer lots off blank pages in winter,also got dads that go back to 60's interesting to look back at.

My mum and her mum use to keep a farmer and stockbreeder on the kitchen table.

 

[Adam@Rumen]

That is what I do, sometimes end up writing up a few days if it lapses, but things like phone calls, verbal quotes etc, loads out/in.
Handy when somebody tells you they said whatever 6 weeks ago, and you would have long forgotten without diary entry.

Got a big diary with any quotes/conversations I have in it, be screwed without it.

Once you get used to filling it in, you do it naturally

 

[ARW]

Fill the diary in everyday, I do have to being a contractor buts its great to look back on, got them all since 2008, note if its a really wet day etc.
Sometimes I forget to fill it in for a day or so, look back through your phone calls/texts on that day and it jogs your memory.

 

[farmerclare]

i've got an A4 diary and I put down when we move the cattle from field to field, when cows are bulling, the weather, anything really that you might want to know in a few weeks/months time and would have forgotten. @Henarar often asks me to look in my diary for something, comes in really useful.

 

[GTB]

Yes I keep a diary too as did my father before me. Sometimes forget to fill it in for a couple/few days so have to think hard what went on in those days. Handy for recording bulls turned to cows or rams with ewes etc. Also record all livestock sales and inputs delivered and write down prices quoted for different things too as I'm bloody hopeless for remembering what someone said several days or weeks previously. My diaries go back as far as 2001 and my Dad's probably back as far as 1971 if he can remember where he's put them.

 

[RWG Contracts]

Fill it in everyday,

Where we where

How many hours

Weather

If any staff anoyed me

 

[7610 super q]

No, my life is too boring.

 

[Bootneck]

My dad had kept detailed farm diaries going back to the 70's, has shelves of a4 hardback volumes. It's really interesting looking through, seeing how the farm has changed, the different dates for cattle turnout, lambing, when certain trees come into leaf, etc etc. I keep thinking I need to start!

 

[7610 super q]

My dad had kept detailed farm diaries going back to the 70's, has shelves of a4 hardback volumes. It's really interesting looking through, seeing how the farm has changed, the different dates for cattle turnout, lambing, when certain trees come into leaf, etc etc. I keep thinking I need to start!

Distant relations have got diaries going back to the late 1800's.
2 things struck me when I had a quick browse though some of them...

(1) They had decent dry summers,
(2) They never made any money...........

 

[Wink]

I keep a small diary on the front seat of the truck and record any notes like drugs, movements, tag numbers etc and anything generally important that you need to refer back to in every day life. These notes then get transferred to the relevant places in my home office room. It saves too many lost scrap bits of paper and not big enough for any electronic goods etc. Thinking about it I need to put my sums in there as well. Always doing fag packet costings on backs of envelopes etc. and then a few months down the line you want that very piece of paper to refer too. Thankfully my wife knows where these so called important bits of paper may be 90% of the time (if I did them at home that is )

 

[AndrewB]

I fill in a diary every night from that day a habit I got from my dad, he must have 40 years worth.
Weather, temperatures etc is first thing written.
I write what everyone was doing that day in what fields etc, including myself.
Also what loads away that day, cereals potatoes or cattle.
For example, today snow lying in morning sleety showers rest of day.
The varieties we were grading and a list of the 4 lorries loaded and who customer was.
Also have last years diary next to current one so can compare what stage we were at last year.

 

[Chasingmytail]

We've got one here from 1950's honestly its the most boring thing I have read. My husbands grandma wrote it it mentions the weather which seems to be wet everyday and what animals went to market and the odd death. But agree its utter madness relying on memory and the fact that OH wasnt taught this by his dad is disappointing. I'll pop to The Works tomorrow and pick one up

 

[GTB]

No, my life is too boring.

Your diary isn't meant to be interesting it's just a brief record of what happened on a certain day. How do you remember prices of goods sold last year etc etc?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

I keep 3 diaries!
One pocket diary lives in my back pocket and is used for names & addresses, phone numbers, stock counts, measurements, shopping lists etc, etc, so more numbers than letters.
A desk diary lives on the table beside my tv chair and this is where the days happenings are noted including the weather, (Doris), for instance and rainfall figures.
I also keep an annual diary, an A4 hard back, with 2 pages dedicated to each year where I put down any notable happenings. For instance 1989 was the year I bought my first computer Acorn Archimedes 310 1M, 1965 I bought my first rifle Anschutz 54 no 47273. The first entry is for 1952 in which I can date listening to a conversation between my parents about Harrow & Wealdstone rail crash; a Vampire crashed just outside RAF Valley and a Spitfire crashed in the next farm. That seems to have been an eventful year.

 

[wr.]

I've kept one since 1982. Started with the Boots A4 and then when Boots stopped selling them I went to the WH Smiths A4. I haven't missed a day since I started.

 

[Bruce Almighty]

I've kept a daily diary for over 20 years.

It always comes out for farm assurance visits, you'd be surprised how much info is in there, if it's missing I soon add it.

I fill it in every morning whilst sat on the throne - regular as clockwork