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What is Crop Planning & Order Management?

Jul 11th, 2024
Written by Garrett Corwin

Introduction

Crop planning is the process of calculating how many trays to plant of each variety. Crop planning is also deciding when to plant those seeds to ensure they're ready on time. Crop planning has two goals. The first goal is to grow the correct volume of each product. You don’t want too much product, such that you’re leaving large amounts unsold. You also don’t want too little product, such that you leave customers empty-handed. The second goal is to grow the product at the right time. You don’t want to grow microgreens too young, such that you don’t profit enough per tray. You also don’t want to grow microgreens too old, such that they become fibrous and bitter. Crop planning strives for a balance. Optimize flavor and yield per tray while growing enough product to meet demand.

Yield & Grow Time

There are a plethora of variables that impact the crop planning process. The two primary considerations are days to maturity (DTM) and average yield per tray (YPT). DTM is the duration from planting the seeds to harvesting the mature microgreens. YPT is the average weight of microgreens that a single 10” x 20” (1020) tray produces after growing for the DTM. Farm temperature, farm humidity, sowing density, growing medium, watering regimen, and fertilizer regimen all affect DTM and YPT.

Customer Changes & Order Management

Order management is the process of tracking each customer's order. If you only have a few customers and they all have recurring orders, your job is easy. As you grow your business, though, your number of customers will increase. More customers means there's a higher chance someone will request more, less, or different products. You need to be ready for these requests. You need to tell them if you can fill their new order and when it will be ready. You also need to know how to adjust the number and type of plantings in your farm to accommodate the change request.

Order management is the driving force behind crop planning. Your crop plan changes in response to changes in your customer’s orders. If customer demand increases, you must increase your planting volume. If customers demand different varieties or different sizes of microgreens, you must adjust the grow time of your crops (DTM). For example, you have a customer who orders 32 ounces of sunflower shoots every week. Sunflower shoots take nine days to grow (DTM) and yield 16 ounces per tray (YPT). Thus, you would be planting two trays every Wednesday to harvest 32 ounces the following Friday. The same customer now wants eight ounces of radish, eight ounces of cilantro, and eight ounces of broccoli. We call this a change order and it affects the crop planning process. We now need to know the DTM and YPT of three new crops. We must then coordinate their planting days such that they all mature at the same time and in the correct quantities.

Here are a few questions to consider when a customer changes their order.

  • If I planted trays for their previous order, what happens to that product when it matures? Will I compost it, use it for samples, or sell it to an existing customer?
  • Is the farm currently growing the varieties they want in their new order? Do I need to start new plantings to fulfill their new order? Are we growing any or enough excess of those varieties currently? Can we take that surplus and use it for their new order?
  • What are the DTM and YPT of their new varieties? How many trays do I need plant of each to fulfill their order? When should I plant each variety to ensure they're all mature on harvest day?
  • What is the earliest date I can fulfill their new order? How confident am I in that prediction?
  • What if we make a mistake during production? What if we don't have enough of the right varieties? What level of safety margin did I build into my planting and timing calculations?

The Solution

What's the answer? How do we manage orders and adjust the crop planning process without losing our minds? The ideal solution would be a software that knows all about your crops. The software would know the DTM and YPT of every variety. The software would also collect information about every order. Who's the customer? What product(s) do they want? What volume do they want of each product? When do they want their microgreens delivered and how often do they want them delivered? With this data, it could instantly calculate how many trays to grow of each variety. It would tell the user exactly when to plant each crop, when to take the trays out of germination, and when to harvest. Finally, the software would instruct the user on how to harvest and pack each variety for all their customers.

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