How to Keep Simple Spray & Re-Entry Records Without Losing Your Mind

Field Forge 3D · Field guide

If you spray anything on a field — a fungicide, an insecticide, even some fertilizers — you're supposed to write it down. And if you farm in California, "supposed to" is closer to "will get asked about." Between the county Ag Commissioner, your PCA's recommendations, and a buyer's food-safety audit, spray records are one of those chores that cost you nothing when they're done and a very bad afternoon when they're not.

The good news: a usable spray record is short, and you don't need special software to start. Here's what to capture, and how to keep the two intervals that trip people up — REI and PHI — from catching you off guard.

What actually goes in a spray record

For every application, write down the same handful of facts. If you can answer these, you have a record:

• Field or block — which lot got treated (name it the way your crew names it).
• Date and time the application started.
• Product — the full product name and, ideally, the EPA registration number off the label.
• Rate — how much per acre, and the total mixed.
• Target — the pest, disease, or weed you were after.
• Applicator — who did it (and their license number where required).
• REI and PHI — the restricted-entry interval (hours) and pre-harvest interval (days) straight off that product's label.

The first six are just history. The last one is where records earn their keep.

REI and PHI, in plain terms

REI (Restricted-Entry Interval) is how long people must stay out of the treated field after spraying — often 12, 24, or 48 hours, sometimes more. Send a crew in early and you have a worker-safety violation, full stop.

PHI (Pre-Harvest Interval) is how many days must pass between the last application and harvest. Cut too soon and you risk illegal residue on the load — which can mean a rejected shipment or worse.

Both numbers live on the product label. The catch is that they're per field, per application, and they run on different clocks. On a busy week with several products across several blocks, "when can we walk this field?" and "when can we cut it?" become real questions with real money attached. A paper binder can hold the record, but it can't do the math for you.

The simplest system that works

1. Log the moment you spray, not at the end of the week. A phone note beats memory.
2. Copy the REI and PHI off the label into that same entry, every time.
3. Track the countdowns per field, so anyone can see at a glance whether a block is safe to enter or safe to harvest today.
4. Keep it exportable, so when someone asks for records you can hand over a clean file instead of flipping through a notebook.

That's it. If your notebook already does all four, keep using it. If the countdowns are where things slip, that's exactly the gap a small tool can close.

Where the Ranch Mapper fits

Field Forge 3D's Ranch Mapper is a free web app (it works on your phone) for mapping fields and measuring acreage — and it includes a spray & re-entry log built for exactly this. You log each application on a field — product, rate, date, applicator, target, plus the REI hours and PHI days from the label — and it runs the live re-entry and pre-harvest countdowns for you. You can shade fields by status to see which blocks are entry-locked, which are still inside their pre-harvest window, and which are clear. When someone needs the paperwork, you export a clean compliance CSV.

A few honest notes, because they matter here. The log is a record-keeping and countdown tool — it is not a compliance determination. The label and your county's rules are always the final word; the app just keeps your entries straight and does the arithmetic so a deadline doesn't sneak up on you. It works offline in the field and keeps your data in your own backup, which helps where cell service is thin. And it's free while in beta (nothing locked today), so you can put a real week of spraying through it before deciding it's worth a spot in your routine.

Records aren't the fun part of farming. But the version that takes fifteen seconds per application — and warns you before a crew walks in too early — is a lot easier to live with than the shoebox.