Peak Ag consults with farms on, among other things, organic certification. The process to get organic certified requires a lot of information to be tracked, and Peak Ag helps their clients do exactly that.
When their existing software solution and spreadsheets weren’t working, Peak Ag knew there was an opportunity for improvement and decided the answer was a custom software system that could be a single source of truth for documentation on clients’ organic farming activities.
After meeting with the Far Reach team, Peak Ag knew they found their right-fit custom software outsourcing partner. Far Reach and Peak Ag worked together to build a custom platform that makes data entry easier for the Peak Ag team, securely stores data about clients’ fields, and makes reporting a breeze.
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More Efficient Data Entry and Management
Organic certification involves a lot of paperwork and tracking—tillage passes, field history, equipment cleanings, seed data, and more. Entering, storing, and reporting on this data is a big part of the value Peak Ag brings to its clients, so the easier and more trustworthy the process is for Peak Ag, the more clients can trust in the process.
“There’s a lot of information to capture, and it’s different for each farm,” said Kenn Jenkins, Co-founder and Organic Advisor at Peak Ag. “The biggest issue in organic farming is the lack of records and supporting documentation.”
With their custom software system, Peak Ag can make sure they have all the necessary documentation for each field. At a glance, they can see what documentation is missing or confirm that records are all present and go into an inspection with confidence.
“The software is working, I can say that,” said Jenkins. “We can work with larger farms and serve them well. The efficiency of the software makes it easier to look like the professionals we are.”
Jenkins estimates that the new software:
- Has decreased information collection and storage time by 60-70%
- Has reduced the number of certification errors by 95-97%
- Will allow Peak Ag to grow 25-40% more than anticipated because of these efficiency gains
“Without the software, it would be hard to work with as many farms as we do,” said Jenkins. “As long as I have my iPad, I can answer any question because I always have clients’ documentation with me.”
With this level of customer support and the fact that inspections go so well, word of mouth has spread from Peak Ag’s clients to other farms needing their services.
Working With Far Reach
Before working with Far Reach, Peak Ag was using a system that was built for another organic farming-related purpose. Jenkins said, “It required a lot of patchwork, and we had to have spreadsheets and other data outside the system to complete our work.” Now, he says, the system was made specifically for Peak Ag and that makes all the difference.
Peak Ag knew they wanted a custom system and were happy to find a partner like Far Reach to bring it to life. “Meeting the team was huge,” said Jenkins. “When you sit in a meeting, even virtual, you can tell who’s excited, and Far Reach made us feel more comfortable than any other company we met with.”
Custom software projects can be full of unknowns. Peak Ag expected a lot of unforeseen issues to pop-up, but were pleasantly surprised by how fun the process was instead of being stressful. Jenkins said, “The project went even better than expected. We thought there would be more surprises, but the team did a fantastic job communicating and asking questions.”
Even though Far Reach isn’t an expert in ag—we’re experts in software development—Jenkins liked how the team quickly learned what the company’s goals were. “They asked good questions and made recommendations,” he said. “The Far Reach team was looking at the long-term and thinking ahead to make sure we were building what was best.”
Peak ag is happy with their custom software system and it has become a central part of their organization. “Originally, we wanted to grow 3% next year, but now our projections are to grow 30%, and that’s thanks to the efficiency of the software.”
“Without Far Reach, I don’t think we’d have as great of a system as we do,” finished Jenkins.
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