The Role of Partnerships in Advancing Farm Operations
Modern farming is more than seed, soil, and equipment—it’s also data, logistics, and the ability to make decisions in real time. With tighter margins and higher stakes every season, no single farm can innovate alone. That’s why partnerships between producers and agtech companies matter so much.
At UnCommon Farms, we’ve always embraced tools that make our operations more efficient, but only if they work in the real world—on the ground, in the middle of harvest, with all the pressure that comes with it. That’s what led us to partner with Folio3 AgTech and co-develop FarmDocs, a harvest management software solution designed for farmers, by farmers.
The Challenges We Faced at Harvest
Harvest is controlled chaos: thousands of bushels moving from field to truck to bin to buyer. Every step involves people, paperwork, and timing—and the cost of mistakes adds up fast.
Before FarmDocs, our challenges included:
- Paper tickets slowing reconciliation and leaving too much room for error.
- Bin inventory tracking that was often closer to a “best guess” than a reliable number.
- Settlement reconciliations to facilitate timely communication and accuracy with buyers.
- Seasonal crews juggling scattered spreadsheets and hand-written notes.
Other farm management software solutions we tested didn’t measure up. Most were either too simple to handle harvest realities or too complex to fit into daily workflows. Nothing was truly built for the fast pace of harvest.
What We Needed From a Solution
When we started looking for a better system, our requirements were clear:
- Simplicity that fit into existing routines, not extra work for the crew.
- Real-time harvest tracking from the field all the way to the buyer.
- Accuracy to speed up reconciliation to settlements.
- Flexibility to work with different crews, farms, and workflows.
Above all, the technology had to adapt to our farm operations—not the other way around.
Partnering With Folio3: How It Worked in Practice
Our partnership with Folio3 AgTech began with exploratory conversations and quickly moved into prototype testing. From day one, the process wasn’t about buying farm operations technology—it was about shaping it together.
During early harvests, our crews stress-tested FarmDocs in live conditions: ticket entry in the field, bin tracking under pressure, handoffs between seasonal staff. We gave direct feedback, and Folio3’s engineers responded quickly, refining the tool in real time.
Harold Birch, Executive Vice President and Co-Founder, who leads the project for UnCommon Farms, puts it this way: “We needed a tool that worked the way farms actually run during harvest—not the way software designers imagined it. Folio3 listened, adjusted, and delivered a system that feels like it was built with farmers at the table. That’s why FarmDocs works.”
Co-Development That Made a Difference
The biggest shift came from how the partnership worked. This wasn’t a vendor-client relationship—it was true co-development.
Some examples where our input reshaped FarmDocs:
- A simplified digital grain ticket flow that mirrored how farmers actually work.
- AI-assisted photo capture to digitize paper tickets instantly.
- Live bin inventory tracking that gave confidence in storage and marketing decisions.
The result is a farm record-keeping app and grain tracking system that feels like it was built by farmers, because in many ways, it was.
The Impact We’ve Seen in Our Harvests
Since adopting FarmDocs, we’ve seen tangible improvements:
- Faster reconciliation and settlements, saving hours at the end of long days.
- Fewer disputes with buyers, thanks to cleaner, more reliable records.
- Smarter bin capacity decisions, with real numbers instead of estimates.
- Seasonal crews who could learn the system quickly and contribute right away.
The intangible benefits matter too: smoother communication, fewer late nights fixing spreadsheets, and greater peace of mind during one of the busiest times of the year. FarmDocs has become the backbone of our harvest operations.
Why This Partnership Matters Going Forward
FarmDocs isn’t just a one-season fix—it’s part of how we’re modernizing our farm for the long term.
For UnCommon Farms, this partnership is about more than software. It’s a commitment to farmer-driven innovation, where technology companies listen, adapt, and build tools that reflect the realities of agriculture.
We see FarmDocs continuing to evolve, adding new features, and integrating with other farm data management tools as farming itself changes. The ongoing collaboration with Folio3 means the platform will keep pace with what farms truly need.
A Farmer’s Lens on Technology Partnerships
Real change in agriculture doesn’t come from top-down technology. It comes when farms and agtech companies work side by side, shaping solutions together.
That’s why we partnered with Folio3—and why we believe FarmDocs can help other producers, co-ops, and agribusinesses simplify harvest logistics, reduce errors, and improve accuracy.
Because at the end of the day, the best farm management software solutions are the ones built with farmers, not just for them.
Learn More About FarmDocs
At UnCommon Farms, we’re proud to be part of the story behind FarmDocs. To learn more about how this grain tracking system works and why it could make a difference in your harvest, visit our FarmDocs page.
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