Eliminating Apple Harvest Chaos

Orchard Labor & Piecework Tracking As Easy As Pie

Featuring the original 'Apple Girl', Kait Thornton!

Overview

Ever feel like field paperwork rots your schedule (and your sanity) faster than bruised fruit?

As we head towards apple harvest season, we’re unpacking the proven best practices that successful farms use to streamline picking, piecework, payroll and compliance. Finally, you can turn “I dread running payroll” into “Wow, that was easy!”

Manual labor tracking chews through your day and leaves H-2A compliance hanging by a thread. In this free session, FieldClock teams up with the original 'Apple Girl', Kait Thornton (fourth-generation orchardist, ag influencer, and unapologetic FieldClock super-user) to show apple growers exactly how ditching pen-and-paper unlocks clean payroll records, real-time crew insights, and stress-free audits.

Don’t let another harvest pass without the data advantage!

Transcript

NICO

There it is.

Thanks for joining today. Everyone back again for another live webinar. We're super excited about this one because we are almost in Apple Harvest and doesn't matter what you grow, every time harvest season comes around things can get pretty chaotic. So we wanted to bring on a webinar here that really talks about how you can eliminate that chaos. What can you do in your business to set yourself up for success so that you don't have to experience quite as much?

I don't think you're ever going to bring it down to zero. Let's be real on that. But what can you do to be proactive instead of reactive in your business? And before I get into our content, this is a live webinar. And right down there in the bottom of zoom, there's a Q&A button. Please ask us questions. We're here to answer anything you have live, and we're going to save that probably a little bit more towards the end there.

But one of the most frequently asked questions that we get is, are you recording this? And 100%, yes, we are recording this. We understand folks have a busy life out there on the farm. So if you need to take off a little early, no worries. We are going to send out the recording right after this. So first things first.

I wanted to introduce our panelist here, Kate Thornton. Kate is a field clock superuser for several years. And well, Kate, I just want you to tell the folks a little bit about your AG background. Its extensive.

KATE

Well hello everyone, I'm Kate Thornton. I see some familiar names in the attendees list, but for those of you who don't know me, I'm a fourth generation apple and pear grower. I'm up in north central Washington, so we both we grow about 60% pears, 40% apples. And then I do like social media, educating people, consumers on who and where food comes from.

But bottom line, like our operation, we're sitting about 440 acres. We are not vertically integrated in any sense, so we are just bare bones operation, just growing fruit commercially, putting it on a truck and then sending it to the warehouse. So, my parents started out even though I'm fourth generation, they started out like 23 acres, built it into over 400 and so seen a lot of changes.

Just even in my lifetime of how we approach different operational systems and stuff. And field clock has been a huge part of us. You know, growing up our operation.

NICO

We're definitely going to get into that for sure. Before we do, though, I also want to introduce Ashley Reese as well from Field Clark. Hey, ash.

ASHLEY

Hey. It's nice to meet everybody and also glad to see some familiar faces on here as well. But for those of you who don't know me, my background prior to working for Field Clark is in agriculture. I was running an apple and peach orchard in new Jersey. Huge advocate for Farm Bureau. And you know, unlike Caitlin, I came in as a first generation farmer.

So my experience farming has been more analytical and systems based and kind of streamlining operations, which now makes sense while I'm with Field Clark. But I'm extremely excited to talk to Caitlin just about her use of Field Clark, some of the struggles that they faced on the farm, and really just some of the chaos that happens and how we can have some best practices in order to control what we can control.

So Caitlin, so excited you're here with us. So thank you so much. Well thank you.

NICO

Absolutely.

I want to set the stage a little bit first. Here. Let me share my screen. So let's we're talking about chaos. Let's discuss like the root causes of chaos. Because every operation is different. You grow different crops, you're on different seasonal schedules. But most of the businesses that we work with have the same four principles in mind when it comes to how you can have chaos in your business.

And it starts with the labor that you perform in your operations. So how are you tracking that labor? Is there an organized process to it, or is it just kind of a paper timesheets and hopefully stacks of paper in a room somewhere that you may or may not keep track of on a daily basis? Then you have to take that data and put it into whatever digital system you're using, a QuickBooks or a spreadsheet.

Maybe then you have to go into your payroll process, whether it's weekly, biweekly, monthly, at each step of the way, all the way up to the end of the year when you're paying your taxes or God forbid, Dol comes knocking for compliance, audit all of these steps along the way. Can produce disorganization and inefficiency, and they compound as you move along the system.

So what we're going to be talking about today is at each of these stages, what can you do in your business to really prevent that chaos that can just bog your business down and add useless hours for no reason? Before I do that though, we have a smaller group today, but I'm still going to give this a try because we haven't done this in a webinar yet, and I really kind of want to see how it goes.

We're going to run a live poll. So everybody joining on board right now, I'm going to put a poll question up. And I want you to click a rating on a scale of 1 to 5. How chaos proof do you think your business is? Do you think it is a one where you're totally not prepared at all? You can't imagine anybody ever showing up to your business and things are going to run smooth.

Or are you a five? Are you just completely dialed in? If a Dol auditor shows up, then things are going to be fine. You can share all of your records with them and there's going to be zero discrepancy. You have nothing to worry about. I'm going to give it just about five to 10s, and we'll see how things go in here and what the reason I'm doing this now is after we talk to Caitlin and really dive into some of these things, I'm going to ask the same question again live.

And I want to see if the percentages and the numbers change. So we'll give it about five more seconds. Okay. We got about 61% participation I like it.

All right.

We're going to close that one. So looking at the results here and I don't have them up on the screen right now. But we've got 63% of people right in the middle rating themselves about a three. So no ones and twos which is good. One person with a five. You must be a rock star. We're going to see if you still feel that way at the end.

But most of the people are kind of right in the middle of the road, which is what we we expected to see. So based on that, Caitlin, I really want to see just dig into your story. You've been using Field Clock for a number of years now. You were pretty young when your company implemented the system, but I want you to think back to what the household look like and what the mind was before you implemented it.

How was the paperwork run?

KATE

Yeah, well, my parents did it for themselves for a number of years. And then I remember like 13 years old or so, like, we would have a part time payroll person come to our house and stuff, and our office was always in the basement. So there just be like, tons of paper everywhere. And of course, like I'm just a kid, so I'm just like, seeing everything.

But we'd always have papers all over our counter. We'd have like, it was like kind of a color coded system. We were trying like, dad, my dad's a good manager, but he was trying to create systems with, like, our foremen and stuff. And so it, you know, kind of have, like, just like a sheet of paper with lines on it.

And then you'd say, you know, the date and then the time, like from 7:00 to 10:00 doing, you know, fertilizing or whatever, and put each person's name and, you know, draw like a square around that job and then have to take it to the computer system and put all of that in. And like, I was talking to dad about it.

He's like, yeah, I got really good at it. I could like add it all up in my head and stuff. But like, one huge thing is like, it would take so much time and then you'd, you make one mistake and it can mess up like all of the work that you had done in the last hour. And I just remember like that being a huge issue.

I don't remember like, like specific instances. I just remember it just being a lot of stress and knowing the word eral, I was just like a very stressful event in my house as I was like playing Barbies or whatever I was doing downstairs to.

ASHLEY

Very cool. That's really funny. And I can understand to like the avoidance of payroll as you get older to just hearing it with such a negative connotation. So before I ask a series of other questions, one of the things so Caitlin and I just backstory had the opportunity to talk last week and just catch up a little bit, and I was able to hear her story firsthand.

And one of the things that's resonated for me was the concept of key players on your farm. So a key player on your farm would be those individuals who have that instrumental knowledge of your system. So whether that's the person who controls your pesticide application license and can purchase chemicals, the person who handles your color coded payroll system and who can, you know, if something were to happen.

No one else really knows how to do it. Well, let's say even the person who is responsible for hiring every year, let's say you're not on an HOA contract. You're actually responsible for maybe getting part time help or teenagers or whatever the case may be. But if that person were to leave or they changed their cell phone number, maybe those part time people, when they call back, wouldn't know who to contact and maybe move on to a different part time job.

So just as we move forward, Caitlin, if you can identify maybe the key players back before you digitize the system, like who they were and the institutional knowledge that they had.

KATE

Oh yeah. Was again, my parents doing everything. So my dad's I get his procrastination tendencies. And so it was like, of course payroll is a huge like undertaking. And so he'd always put it off and then that would cause stress in the operation too. But my mom would assume a lot of those roles of like admin work, like making sure everything was compliant.

She was, I think, the first person in our immediate community to start using H-2a housing. And so, like building a housing system and like making sure it was all per regulation. And then, you know, I guess backtracking a little bit is like, you grew up on a farm like this. And I always remember, like, you invest all year in a crop and then there would always be stress around harvest of like, okay, can we pick this fruit or not?

And like how scary that was. And trying to keep employees around. And you had like a lot of migrant workers coming up from like California working crops down there, bouncing back and forth. And so it was a lot of stress. And so that's when we started using H-2a. But of course, at the Huai it's more expensive. There's more regulations.

And so that was a huge amount of stress. And it became more and more and more work on a single person, which was like my mom doing all of this stuff, or my dad trying to help out and grow our operation and focus on the crop at hand to. So it was all that stuff. And then my mom took off when I was about 15, and then it was like immediate, like vacuum in our operation and so scramble mode, trying to take care of the current crop and then like looking forward to the next one.

And so we had now we have three people doing the job that she was doing as our operation has grown. But we're using H-2a every single year and stuff. But that's how everything has spread across now. And it was actually like the year or two after she took off is when we started using Field clock because it was like, we can't keep track of everything and trying to keep track of all the records of all these different guys that are coming up and trying to create some sort of order out of chaos.

ASHLEY

Yeah, that's that was the key takeaway for me last time we spoke is just the wealth of information that your mom had and how she was a key player on your operation, you know, and after you describing your color coded situation, I can't imagine being I believe it's rosy now who has taken over Cesar and Rosa? Rosie. What that was like for for them to come in and and just for those of you thinking about this, to like the institutional knowledge that she had, it's it's where do I find all of the information?

Where is it housed? Where is it stored? How do I access it? How do I make those contacts? How do I replicate contracts if I can't find them? So that must have been overwhelming to say the least. But from what I understand. Go ahead.

KATE

Well, like Rosie's are like main payroll, like H-2a person. And she started out as, like, the part time payroll person. And then she's now, like, assuming the role of, like, overhead all of our H-2a systems and stuff. And then her husband says are is our crew boss. And so they were able to work together really well using systems like field clock and stuff.

Whereas before they were coming in, we had also another like married couple that helped build our operation and stuff. But our original foreman, Geronimo, passed away a couple of years before. And so there was also that transition of what systems they had. And like, of course, it's a married couple. And so they have their own like sort of, you know, communication between themselves.

And so it was just like an interesting time.

ASHLEY

So that's actually it's a great leading question. How are Cesar and Rosie using field clock to communicate. How are they. I guess what what are the pro tips that they have? Or you know, how are they able to better communicate, if you will, through using field clock?

KATE

Well, first of all, of all, it's like they can quickly identify. I was just talking to Rosie about, like, how Cesar monitors like the crew and stuff, whereas before it's like you, you'd only know the results of what was happening in the field. Like at the end of the week, or when you finally get around to doing payroll and being like, there's an inconsistency here, or like, this guy seems to be picking a lot faster than these other guys.

If you're doing like piece rate or whatever, but then being able to identify in real time because like is always constantly checking his phone and stuff and checking on our crew if we're doing piece right. Okay, why is this guy picking a lot more fruit than allotment, more beans than these other guys? Why is he going so fast or identifying?

Oh, maybe this guy's in a bad area. He's not picking as much fruit. Can we move him to a different area, or can we team him with another guy that will pick faster to. And so I where these strengths and weaknesses are? Or is there like something fishy going on and being able to like nip it in the butt like right away.

Another thing is like Rosie's in charge of keeping track of all the paperwork of all these different guys and stuff, and instead of having it, like, overwhelming where you have this list of, okay, we have guys that come in and they're just doing like pruning and like a couple of months of work that way versus some guys want to come up and they only want to work harvest.

We'll have more guys during harvest. But if those guys aren't, if those guys are in our system but they're inactive, you have the option to say, okay, these guys are not like working right now, but they're still in the system. But you can identify, right? Here's the crew that I'm actually working with right now. And that's also made a huge difference.

Instead of like, okay, we have just this huge binder of all these different guys, but which ones are actually working right now and which ones will be coming up? What can we anticipate?

ASHLEY

I love that it's more decision based, more decision based and data based instead of more feelings. So I feel like this employee maybe isn't performing or maybe taking advantage or, you know, instead of actually knowing and seeing and then being able to communicate those steps or that performance directly to Rosie, who is handling that. And we all know that, you know, Department of Labor, labor regulations, H-2a regulations are just getting more and more strict and complicated.

And and from what I understand as well, Rosie, you know, really started digging into the H2O program for you guys and has really been able to allocate her time more effectively there. If you don't mind maybe talking a little bit more about what Rosie's done with your H-2a program.

KATE

Oh, yeah. Well, it's just like it used to be like this. It would take two days to do payroll. Like you make a mistake, then you have to go back through and find fine tune everything and stuff. But now they're going to do payroll tomorrow, and it's going to take them like an hour and a half to do all the payroll.

ASHLEY

Which is crazy.

KATE

So like but but that doesn't mean Rosie's working less hours. It just means she's able to focus on more of the things that she's really good at instead of, you know, like, perils. One of those things, it's like it's got to get done either way, so might as well get it done as fast as and efficiently as possible.

And then this way she's able to just like go through and really stay on top of regulations because they're always changing. And also she's like built some good relationships with people that like come and do our like audits and stuff and like built a good rapport and staying organized. And like recently this housing that we had been working on because there's like some minor hiccups there was like ridiculous.

It's like we we can have more guys in this house. But like, there was these certain little hiccups and she was able to focus on getting those adjusted. And so now we're able to house more guys in that certain area. And that's transformative for our operation because of course we've got overtime hours and stuff. And so we want to spread our work over more guys.

If we can bring more guys and actually have certified housing for them, that's huge.

ASHLEY

That that is huge. And I'm glad she's able to allocate allocate her time effectively and especially to with the timing that we're talking about, like over the past seven years or so since she's taken over now you have over time, there's increased regulations, and it couldn't be a better time for her to have a better handle and more time to spare, if you will, being able to focus on compliance.

KATE

Absolutely.

ASHLEY

So here's a here's a question for you. What persistent myths would you say keep growers stuck on paper? And how would you, if you had the opportunity to talk to them about it face to face? How would you debunk it.

Have one.

KATE

Well I think like it's just always like I've got so much going on right in front of me, I don't like, I don't want to take the time to figure all of this out and stuff, which I would say field has a really good support team and that actually understands what's going on. And so like any questions that you have, you can actually like call them and they'll work through whatever you need help with, which is huge.

Instead of like I feel like this day and age, it's like you're so used to customer service being like, I have to send an email and then I have to wait for an email. Whereas farmers, it's like you need it done right now or you need it done yesterday. And so like, it's nice to have that readily available customer service, especially with onboarding, because with any sort of onboarding, I'm not going to sit here and say, oh yeah, it's just going to be easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

It's going to like, there's always going to be some hiccups, especially with like making sure that system is unique and effective for your specific operation and whatever characteristics your operation has. But also, I would just say it's nice that you have a team of people that are behind you that can actually be of assistance and readily available. Like some things that we we did is like we started we printed our own like QR code badges and stuff instead of waiting for them to be sent to us.

But I'm sure like times have changed now where like things have switched around. But it's also good to like try on just like a sample crew. If you maybe just like have your water changers and you want to just try and like keeping track of their labor or water changing, that's a good way of doing it too. But we've been using Field Clock for so long now I wouldn't even know, like how to convert over anymore.

NICO

Well, I love the fact that your dad just trusted his employer. Yeah, pick it up like that. That I. That there was a need. There was something that we don't see in a lot of farmers. They see the process that they're using now and they're like, whatever. This works like it's worked for me for decades or work for my dad.

It's going to work today. And getting them off of that notion that, oh, it's totally working for me because it's just not.

KATE

That's a great point. I guess I forgot to, like, even mention that. It's like my dad's really good at saying, all right, you guys are in charge of these things. These are my. You're talking about it this morning. We have coffee every morning. He's like, when you're a manager, you just say, all right, this is what I want.

This is my goal. And and trust that, like your people under you are going to be able to find if you give them that goal, they're going to be creative and they're going to figure out whatever way is best. So for saying, hey, we need to keep track of all these guys labor and we don't want to be like bleeding, bleeding out and paying way too much when we don't need to be.

Then that's when, like Rosie identified. Hey. She wants to make it easier for herself. She wants to make it easier on our operation. Found the system like field clock. And I think that's a huge thing. Is, like, not micromanaging and saying, all right, you guys are doing this job every single day, day in and day out. You know, the ins and outs of it.

You get to be in charge of of figuring that out. And so yeah, my dad is good at delegating.

ASHLEY

I love that and I love I love the concept of creating that culture too. We hear that a lot because we talk to farmers all across the country. And one of the common themes is, you know, I really need a system that works for me. I'm starting to take over the bookkeeping, I'm starting to take over the payroll, or I'm I'm now managing the farm, and I need better tools at my disposal where sometimes there's that, you know, difficult conversation with succession planning and next generation where, you know, the older generations like, well, pen and paper works for me.

It works for my mom and dad. Like it'll work for you, too. Yes. But you also didn't have the same regulations that we do. You also don't have the same pretty much everything. And there are so many hoops to jump through now where you really can't use these same processes and, you know, the tools are available. So absolutely.

KATE

No, I mean, I'm, I'm going to take over the operation, but I'm not sitting here saying I because my dad's always talking to me. It's like you're not one to be settled down right now. You don't need to have your boots in the dirt every single day. You need to be able to come on as a manager and oversee everything.

And so this is a great way of doing it. Like, I had another grower, I was driving to a meeting this morning, and I had a grower call me and be like, what the hell do you guys have going on? I flew over in our helicopter drying cherries. Like what? That job are you doing? And I'm like, I actually don't even know.

And that's I pulled out field clock and I was like, let me see what we have going on. And I was like, oh, we're fertilizing. That's why they had all these buckets with them and stuff. And he's like, oh, that makes sense. But it's just so nice that I can check. I can be in another state, I can meet a conference or whatever and say, okay, what do we have going on?

How many guys are working? Why is that one guy not working? Is there, you know, why did that guy leave early? There's notes on it or Foreman can put on. It's just it's just really cool.

ASHLEY

That is really cool that that was actually that was our next series of questions for you is just kind of talking through how your crew is utilizing field clock. So if you can walk us through kind of how your employees are clocking in, so what their day looks like when they're capturing piecework, what that looks like for them, how are they capturing it?

Are they using, you know, preprinted tickets or Bluetooth printers in the field really looking for just, you know, how they're using it so that you can maximize on their efficiency and maybe some best practices.

KATE

Yeah I mean we just again we're like a pretty simple operation. We don't have any Bluetooth printers in the field. Every guy just has their QR badge, just a little plastic card and they keep it in their wallet. Or some guys like have it attached on like one of those little elastic things.

ASHLEY

Oh yes. Yes, I think I gave them to you when we were at a trade show.

KATE

Yeah. Hook to a belt. And so like they come off of the shuttle because again H-2a so we provide transportation. So you get in a line, we actually start scanning in before a little before like the actual scan in time, just so you have a little bit of time to get everyone scanned in. It takes maybe like 5 to 10 minutes.

And because we got like a 45 man crew and our foreman just like, takes his phone, scans each of their badges. So you at least have a touch point there. You know who you're scanning in all that type of thing. And then they're they're off and running and then with, like, paid breaks, that's like another huge thing. Hit the factory in a ten minute breaks.

Then we can just say, hey, adding a break. And then it instantly clocks everyone out at that time and then clocking everyone in. And so that's been huge for peace, right? We still are scanning badges. And we usually have like someone out there that's doing that too. And Sasser manages all of that.

ASHLEY

Very cool, very cool. Now I'm going to say a terrible word in farming. Have you been audited before and what was that experience like?

KATE

Oh, yeah. Audits.

Yeah I remember like I don't remember quite I just remember it being a super stressful thing and us getting fined for ridiculous things before, or just like the huge stress of making sure everything was organized. And, you know, you always have a huge binders or you have like the filing cabinets and stuff, but, we had a Department of Labor audit like last year or whatever, and it was super easy, honestly.

Like we were just able to pull up, you know, a group of guys, whatever they wanted to look at, make sure we were complying with overtime or, you know, taxes or whatever else and able to pull up from whatever date that they wanted or whatever guys they wanted or like, it's really nice and straightforward. You pull up an individual guy and say, okay, what is the track record here?

And and just like everything is lined out and a very easily digestible interface to instead of just like a list with all these numbers and stuff. And it's like really hard to keep track of, just super straightforward. We didn't have any issues. I think like a couple weeks ago we had a ESD audit and that went great too.

We just had all the records of guys and stuff, but we haven't had any issues, which is super nice.

ASHLEY

Oh thank God, knock on wood, right?

KATE

Yeah.

ASHLEY

So I know that I know that you were relatively young when Guild Clark was implemented on the farm, but have you heard any comments or just opinions on maybe something surprising that, you know, you guys found or were able to see once you moved into a digital system?

KATE

I think it's just like all about payday, right? Like, so payday is always like great energy, great energy. Everyone's excited for payday and stuff. But in years past, it's like everyone's getting a check. So everyone waits in line for their check, give their check, and then we have to call the bank and say, hey, you got 45 guys coming, and they're going to be like bogging down your bank or set up, set up like a different time slot or whatever.

And that was always a huge stress. There's language barriers. The bank tellers would be stressed out a little bit. Plus a lot of these guys, they don't have bank accounts with that specific bank. So they're getting charged, you know, $7 for every transaction. And then so it's like $14 every pay period. You know, extrapolate that over every single guy.

It becomes quite a bit. And like a huge stress we had issues with fraud before with like checks. And so now we're we take field clock and we integrate that into farmers office. Farmers office is like how we do all of our like bookkeeping and stuff. And then from farmers office we use intermix for pay cards. So every guy has like a pay card.

It's like used kind of like a debit card. And it's just like the money that we give them, it gets loaded into that card and then they just use it as as needed. And then they'll take that card and they'll go in and like transfer it to Mexico or wherever they need it to go. I'm not sure how some of the some of the guys can do it from the specific app in that case, or they just go into a business and transfer it.

However they want to. But that way it's like hands off for us. We're not in risk of getting, you know, fraud that way. And we're not stressing out our local bank. Like they'll still go to the bank and use the ATM for cash withdrawals and stuff. But that way it's just like payday is like Friday morning. They have the money on their card and they can go spend it.

And then we instead of like taking all the time and paying guys to transport them to the bank, then we have drivers that will just take them down to Walmart or to shopping or whatever else they want to do.

ASHLEY

That sounds like a great way to make their time more efficient and to bring the fun back into payday again. Yeah, yeah.

NICO

And I'm just thinking of all the different points just in that one process that you mentioned printing checks, distributing checks, checks, going to a bank and all of those just got eliminated into. Boop. Done.

ASHLEY

Yeah, exactly. That's a lot of that's a lot of time. You know, that's a lot of time. And I just I can't imagine, you know, just the experience in the bank for, you know, the bank tellers as well. That must have been helpful. Yeah. So now as far as moving to a digitized system again, you know, a lot of times we hear like, you know, like, I don't know if my, my crew can handle this or, you know, they may not be tech savvy.

What would you what would your opinion be of, like the things that you've heard or comments that have been made when you guys implemented the system like this and ultimately like, how do they like it and would they change back? Oh no.

KATE

I think like one thing is hugely accuracy. Like for us and for them. Another thing about payday is like huge culture thing, like just amongst our employees. They like share with each other how much they make and, and they like, you know, the guy.

NICO

Who love that.

KATE

The guy who's making the most money like he's top dog and stuff. So if we screw up on our end, then it's like not a good day for them.

NICO

And so.

KATE

And that kind of eliminates a lot of those issues. Or if like we have an issue and it gets like notice then Rosie can log back in, make a change right there. And it doesn't have to screw up like the rest of the work that has been done. It can be a per case instance, but that's definitely helped a lot is making sure there's accuracy.

You can go back and look and verify that that is an accurate pay period and that everything is accounted for. And so they have, you know, visibility over what they're doing now. Like when it comes to the tech savviness. Like it goes back to, all right, how are they transferring their funds to Mexico? Some guys can be using their app with the intermix whatever it is.

Yeah. Intermix. And then also some of the guys are going into stores and, you know, paying that transaction fee to wire it to Mexico or whatever. It's whatever guys are comfortable with, we could train them up on. There's like an employee portal where every guy can log in and look at his hours. All right, guys, just don't do that because for whatever reason, it's just like, maybe some of them do, but it's kind of where everyone's comfort zone is.

But what we require out of everyone is hardly anything on the tech side. It's just mostly our foreman that has to kind of know. And that's still very bare bones. The basic functions of field clock.

NICO

Yeah.

ASHLEY

I just love the culture, though. I love that, you know, even though you're you're paying piecework, you have the minimum wage adjustments, things like that. I love how just a digitized system or in general, you're able to create a culture of competitiveness, and the reward is hard work and pay. So now they can rib each other effectively, right?

Because they know how they're each performing and hold each other accountable as well. And even more than that, the crew boss as well, you know, you're able to make those quick decisions like you were mentioning earlier, moving your crew around and making them more effective or changing your teams up. That's something that I really haven't thought about before either.

You know, I've got maybe a newer employer, an underperforming employee. Now I'll team them up with someone who I know is a good teacher or trainer, so that this way they get what they need to perform. I just, I love I love that culture.

KATE

You can start to I like our foremen as like visibly started to see patterns of like what guys are like performing outperforming others and stuff and has been able to. I just remember this like actually recognize that performance. Like they like the guys did. He bought I think like two pairs of Jordans because a lot of the guys like, really like shoes and stuff and presented it to like our, you know, I don't even know what the award was most improved and best before, I don't know, I'm thinking sports, but that was kind of like their own thing.

And we were in charge of that. But he was able to, you know. Identify those those leaders.

NICO

I love that because we mentioned that earlier. It's not a gut feeling. You don't just oh, I think this guy is the best. The data shows it. This is exactly the cadence that he picked at. This is the amount of apples that he has at each point. And there's just no disputing the data. And I love the fact that you also identified this one here to the real time agility of making business decisions right there on the spot, as opposed to waiting until the end of the week, or even at the end of the season to realize, you know, if I had to do it all over again, maybe we should have done this, that,

or the other thing and you can actually do it that day.

I feel like.

KATE

More so an issue for cherry farmers to because everything is happening so.

NICO

Quick, real quick.

ASHLEY

Yeah. No, I love that one of one of our, the owners actually, and founders of the company, was telling me a story about how they were in like a third pick where they were just really slowing down, slowing down, really hot work. And, you know, they were able to see this in real time. So the supervisor then ended up moving them to a new block where they were doing first picks, and they saved themselves roughly about $3,000 just by moving the team and being able to see that in real time and make real time decisions.

KATE

Absolutely.

ASHLEY

Very cool. So I know that we're we're approaching time here, but I'd love to just get an idea because, you know, we've talked a lot about succession planning. And even though you're not on the farm right, every day, you know, you do have plans in place. What does a system like this, or just systems in general, that digitize this process, mean for you and your conversations with your dad as you really start talking about that?

KATE

Well, again.

NICO

Like.

KATE

I'm coming out of I got my degree at WSU and it's a business degree, and I've learned a lot of useful tools now, like how do I apply it? And it's, again, like dad was going from writing down every single expense that they had and like this big spreadsheet and stuff, or doing all the payroll by hand using different markers and, and archaic computer system and stuff.

KATE

And so now it's like, all right, I can start to understand all these intricate parts of the business that's taken him 39 years to, you know, his his 39th crop to, to learn and really understand in and out. Well, if I can get an understanding and not have to understand every single nut and bolts of that, but say, hey, I can take a snapshot here and I can take a snapshot of what we have going on here and like create systems of a different spreadsheets or different calculations of how are we allocating our money?

Can we be doing better, identifying those weak spots? And that's how I feel like I can really come into the operation and be most effective, I guess.

NICO

And before we run out of time to, I do want to just mention one thing when we're talking about chaos. So there's the obvious chaos of harvest. Yeah, people running around pick windows. Everything is very tight. There's the unplanned chaos that you don't have any type of a readiness for. I just wanted you to touch really quick. Caitlin on.

When farmers think about their paper system, they're like, nope, I know where everything is. It's dialed in. Everything's cool. What happens if your barn burns down? Talk about that story.

Oh.

KATE

We did have like a shop burned down. And that was like where our headquarters is for. And like, thankfully, nothing was, like, ruined too much. But it also made us realize, oh my gosh, like, what if things did burn up? Or like, just the things that we had already lost in that instance? We're like, well, thank goodness none of our like, filing cabinets and stuff were touched.

But that is like we're in 2025. Why are we relying.

NICO

On.

KATE

Filing cabinets.

NICO

That.

KATE

Have all of our, like most important.

NICO

Things.

KATE

That would really set us backwards and put us behind. And so that is also like when we decided, okay, we really do have to grow up our operation. And instead of relying on what my like my dad knew and stuff is like again, goes back to your people. All right. What do you guys know? What are you guys seeing?

What are you hearing of and how can we start implementing that on our farm? But yeah, there's all sorts of things we've had. We've had flooding of basement. It's kind of of biblical proportions around here.

NICO

I think about it.

KATE

We have fires, we have floods, we have all these disasters. And so any sort of risk mitigation we can do is is huge.

NICO

For audience. Yeah. Just think back to your own operation right now. What unforeseen things did you have to deal with? I want to do one question here. So Mindy was asking. She said she has three managers, one of which is really struggling with letting go of the paper. So Caitlin Ashley, like what suggestions can you give to just make sure they can finally let go of that paper?

KATE

Well, I would say like okay, clearly there's something like that's it's comfortable. Like you know, what is going where you like already dealt with all the different issues that you've probably ran into at that point and know how to deal with it when it comes to a like pen and paper method and stuff. So it's like I, I certain characteristics of new systems that are similar and being able to be like, okay, so what you do with pen and paper here, you can do it the same here in the system.

And, and just really seeing it as a new and improved, but not an entirely new system. It's just taking everything that you're already doing and putting it in using a keyboard instead of your hand.

NICO

Love that. And I also liked your suggestion earlier about rolling it out incrementally. Start with a small crew. See how it works there. Get comfortable with using it in a very small setting first and then scale.

Yeah.

KATE

Like don't overwhelm yourself at first because you know your your problems are going to be as big as the crew.

NICO

That.

KATE

You're using with it.

NICO

I love that. And I did mention I'm going to ask our audience a question before we go. It's the same question that we asked them before. Before I do that though, let me share my screen again, because if anybody on this call today or anybody watching our recording on YouTube after is hearing these different chaotic circumstances and they're just wondering, all right, let me just see if this works for me.

I want to put Ashley's contact info up here. Reach out to Ashley. Ashley loves answering questions.

ASHLEY

I.

NICO

Do.

And just talking to farmers.

So while we're looking at that, I'm just going to put our poll question up there. Again, I'm curious to see if anyone's perception has changed at all on sick. Let me just launch that live. Same question on a scale of 1 to 5, one being extremely unprepared, five being yeah, after hearing all of these things, I still feel like I'm super prepared.

I have no issues whatsoever.

NICO

And while we're running that poll, let me just go over here. And one question for either of you from Jim. He's just saying, if a neighbor told you that they're too small to justify technology, what would you say to that?

KATE

The same thing that my older brother, who is a civil engineer, told my father when he had a flip phone.

NICO

Said, dad, don't.

Remember my flip.

Phone.

KATE

Don't get left behind, because that is it's the trend right now. It's like you've you've got to get your systems. Just save yourself some headaches. You know, just rely because I think it's also I tell this with people when it comes to social media, generationally, we have different approaches to social media and we have different approaches to technology.

KATE

Whereas, okay, I even had a taste of this when you'd be in school and you start using a computer system, or you start using like digital anything, you know, you'd be typing up a report and if you didn't hit that save button and something crashed, then it was all gone, right? Or with these like older computer systems, if you hit the wrong button, then you had to remember the sequence of buttons to get back to that point.

KATE

Or like save yourself. Or you could like lose everything. So everyone who is like of an older generation who's even using, you know, our phones and apps and stuff, they're always like terrified to like, tap and hit the wrong button versus I grew up with a little bit more of the mentality of like, okay, I can find my way out of this by just hitting a bunch of different buttons and stuff, and you've got to kind of have a little bit more of a trust of like, okay, now people who are developing these systems and stuff, they're making it.

KATE

They have the ability to make it a little bit more foolproof. And so I think it's like, all right, you'll work out some kinks. You can always go back, or you can make amendments as you're going. And you got to have that kind of mentality as you're learning, adopting new systems, whether it is field clock or anything else, is just trying out different things and work.

KATE

Just getting your hands dirty in it, so to speak.

ASHLEY

I love that I've never thought about it in the way that way, and that makes so much sense. Everyone's experience in worldview is so different, and for the generations that are having a hard time letting go, I now can understand their fear of technology a little bit more just by hearing that. And, you know, technology has come so far where it's not you're going to lose where you were.

And not everything is not all lost. Where, you know, there are systems in place and servers in place to be able to save and store your data. And I think that it's a great point and one that, you know, really, we need to reassure people with because the systems are not the same.

KATE

And I.

NICO

Think.

KATE

I guess I forgot to like the whole point of the question is like, we're too small. It's kind of like a system that grows with you. Right? So again, we're not vertically integrated. We don't have these like huge, huge crews, but we have enough that makes this like have headaches. So I think like the pace structure is it's relative to how big your operation is or how many guys you're using.

And I think there's also it seems like field clock is very like smaller farm friendly, which is nice to see because even if you don't have the scale, like there's certain benefits offered through a lot of farm bureaus, a lot of like different pay packages and stuff. So I think it's just worth exploring because even if you had like three guys, your cost will be relative to that instead of having the same cost for if you have 100 employees.

NICO

Absolutely. And I'm going to say this session was a success because looking at our two poles, I don't have it up on screen here. I can't share in both at the same time, but we had the same number of people on the threes, so our middle ground was still there. We converted a couple of people that thought they were fours down to twos.

So if you're watching this recording and you're also in that camper, you're like, oh, maybe, maybe I'm not as dialed in as I thought I was. Reach out to Ashley, have a quick conversation, and just see if integrating something like Field Clock or any digital solution for your business is going to help take some of those headaches away, because really, that's at the end of the day.

What it's all about is peace of mind and just reducing that chaos. Art of your operation. So I want to thank everyone today for joining us in our audience. Thank you. Ashley, for jumping in with some awesome questions. And Kate, thank you so much for sharing your story because that's again what it's all about. We love hearing these stories from our users or from any farmers.

There's the unique things that happen on on a farm when you really boil them all down and you hear the stories that people are going through, there's a lot of commonalities. And a system like Field Clock was really designed to address those major pain points. So we love hearing these stories from you, and we want to have you on again.

NICO

Maybe towards the end of the year we're in, we can really start getting people thinking about, all right, 2026. Can't even believe I'm saying that it's coming around the corner. What can we do to make 2026 better than 2025?

KATE

Absolutely. I I'm all for smaller operations, family farms, staying in business and. Absolutely bring awareness to what tools are actually in your in your back pocket that you can start using.

NICO

We love it.

ASHLEY

Love your shirt.

NICO

By the way.

KATE

Thank you. Yes, Washington.

NICO

Absolutely. We love our Washington Farm Bureau partners. Thank you everyone. We are going to post this recording to YouTube and we look forward to seeing you on the next one.

Thank you guys. Thank you.