Crop and Livestock Inventory

Pick a single as-of date that all counts will be reconciled to. For tax and FSA acreage reporting, December 31 is typical; for crop insurance APH, use the production-year close. Mismatched cutoffs between the field, the bin yard, and the office are the most common reason year-end counts don't tie.

If the operation runs a Grade A dairy or a commercial layer flock, the production-record reconciliation step is in scope. Hobby flocks for household use only are not in scope.

MPCI, RP, YP, ARC, or PLC enrollment drives whether FSA-578 acreage and APH bin counts have to be filed against this inventory. Check with the crop-insurance agent if the policy status isn't clear in the office records.

Walk the agronomy lead, herd manager, and shop foreman through last year's totals so this year's count is anchored to known numbers. Flag bins, pens, or input categories where the prior count was disputed or estimated — those need physical re-verification.

Count units of bagged corn and soybean seed by hybrid, variety, lot number, and seed treatment. Carry-over seed needs a germ test before next planting — flag bags older than the prior season for the agronomist. Refuge-in-a-bag (RIB) and structured-refuge bags are tracked separately.

Stick or laser-measure each bin, convert to bushels using the bin chart, and probe for moisture and temperature. Record test weight where available. Grain that has spiked in temperature since the last check needs to be turned or moved before the inventory closes.

Tally bulk and bagged fertilizer (urea, UAN, MAP, DAP, potash), micronutrients, lime, and gypsum. Anhydrous ammonia tank levels recorded separately with SDS reference. Note any product near-expiration or in damaged packaging.

Record herbicide, insecticide, fungicide, and adjuvant inventory by EPA registration number, MOA group (HRAC/IRAC/FRAC), container size, and lot. Restricted-Use Pesticides are flagged separately. Any unlabeled or rinsed-out container in the chemical shed gets pulled and disposed through the Ag Container Recycling Council.

Cereal rye, annual ryegrass, oats, radish, and hairy vetch seed counted by lb and lot. Note seed-tag PLS (pure live seed) and germ percentage where on the tag — degraded germ drives next-season seeding rate adjustments.

Pull the year's application records and confirm each entry has the federally required elements (date, product, EPA reg number, rate, total area, applicator, target pest, license number) plus state-specific fields (wind, temperature, time, county). Federal retention is 2 years; most states are 3-5. Gaps surface here, before a state ag-department audit finds them.

Walk every pen, lot, and pasture and count by class — cows, bred heifers, open heifers, bulls, calves, steers, springers, fresh, dry. Reconcile to the herd-management system (CattleMax, Dairy Comp 305, AgriWebb) before closing. Death loss since last inventory documented with date and disposition.

Run an Allflex or SCR reader through chute or parlor and reconcile against the herd-management database. Animals scanned but not in records, or recorded but not present, become an exception list. Required for 840-tag interstate-movement compliance.

BCS the cows on the standard 1-5 (dairy) or 1-9 (beef) scale. Anything below 4 (dairy) or 5 (beef) heading into the dry / breeding window flagged for the nutritionist. Lameness / locomotion score recorded for the dairy string at the same pass.

Measure silage piles and bunkers by face dimensions and density factor; count round and square bales by cutting; tally commodity bays (DDGs, soyhulls, cottonseed) and mineral / supplement on hand. Project days of feed remaining against current ration and head count — the herdsman needs this number for spring buying decisions.

Any medically important antimicrobial in feed (chlortetracycline, tylosin, etc.) requires a current Veterinary Feed Directive. If none were used this year, the audit step below can be skipped.

Pull every VFD on file, confirm the 6-month duration covers the feed delivery dates, and tie each to the veterinarian's signature and the feed-mill receipt. Treatment-individual records cross-checked for withdrawal-period observance — residue violations trace back to gaps here.

Pull the bulk-tank manifests, DHIA test-day records, and processor settlement statements. Reconcile pounds shipped, butterfat and protein components, SCC averages, and any quality penalties or premiums against the dairy-management system. For layer flocks, reconcile case counts and grade-out against the production log.

Office reconciles physical inventory totals to QuickBooks / CenterPoint asset accounts. Variances over the materiality threshold get a written explanation before the books close — purchases without receipts, sales without invoices, and uncounted shrink are the usual suspects.

Submit the FSA-578 with planted-acreage by farm and tract by the program deadline (typically July 15 for spring crops; varies by state and crop). Update APH bin counts with the crop-insurance agent at the same sitting — late acreage reports trigger denied claims down the road.

Farm manager reviews the consolidated inventory PDF, attaches photos of the bin yard and pen counts, and signs. The signed report is the audit trail for the lender's annual financial review and any crop-insurance loss adjustment in the next twelve months.