How Commercial Cannabis Growers Can Benefit from Using a Software

The legal cannabis market is steadily approaching full bloom and new businesses are entering the market on a daily basis. Competition is heating up and this has put pressure on commercial cannabis businesses to reduce production costs while not compromising quality.

The cannabis industry is also guided by complex regulations requiring cultivation businesses to track each plant throughout its entire life-cycle.

Software systems that allow for automated and detailed tracking and management of all production processes and plants will result in an efficient, compliant, and healthy business. Here’s a quick overview of the top benefits of a growing software:

1. Tracking Your Entire Production

The software assists growers with data-tracking throughout their entire operation, from plant locations to feeding and watering tasks, to growth status. The software can also assist growers with:

Grow Tracking
Enables the opportunity to track every seed, mother, and clone throughout its lifecycle. When plants are continuously tracked throughout the growth phase, it’s easy to maintain optimal health and intervene early should there be any issues with disease or deficiency.

This comprehensive data capture also allows for the collection of historical data for every batch and plant within that batch, which provides valuable insights into the plants preferred conditions and future yields.

Automatic Capture of Lab Results
All legal cannabis products must be lab tested to ensure that they are safe for human consumption (free of heavy metals and pesticides) and to indicate to consumers the potency of the product.

Lab results can be automatically captured by uploading directly to the grow software or via an integration between the software and the cultivator’s lab.

Having this lab data available in the grow software allows for a comprehensive view of the plants’ productivity and future potential.

Tracking of Plant Feeding
Plant nutrition is of utmost importance in commercial cannabis cultivation. The correct balance of nutrients must be achieved in order to ensure healthy growth and productive yields.

The application of nutrients to plants can be traced with the software during feeding, allowing for consistent dosing and a balanced nutrient mix.

Using software (along with hardware) to administer nutrients provides historical data that can be reviewed post-harvest to either learn from previous mistakes or replicate desirable results again in the future.

More Informed Potency and Yield Projections
Data is powerful. Using software to collect and analyze data such as environmental conditions, watering and feeding activity, harvest yield and testing data, provides informed insights into future harvests and testing profiles.

This is valuable information for any business and can give a cultivation operation a leg up on the competition.

Regulatory Compliance
Seed-to-Sale software is used to track cannabis plants as they move through the different growth stages and report this data to the state for regulatory purposes.

Compliance is a reality faced by all licensed operators and using software to manage the process is a great way to satisfy the regulatory requirements and keep the business focused on what it does best – growing cannabis.

2. Team and Task Management

Cannabis cultivation is ultimately farming, and farming is hard work. Cannabis farming on a commercial scale requires a skilled team to support the growing, maintenance, harvesting, and processing of the many plants.

Labor accounts for nearly half of commercial cannabis production costs, meaning there is much room for cannabis businesses to invest in software in order to improve team efficiency and drive down operating costs.

Using Cannabis grow software to automate daily activities and track task progress will improve team efficiency, productivity, and reduce wasteful downtime.

The software also can provide metrics and analytics which are useful in identifying employees who should be rewarded for great work or those who need additional training.

When used correctly, team-management software can increase efficiency, create a culture of transparency, ensure accountability, and improve employee morale.

3. Understanding Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

There is a wide range of insights that simple data analytics can reveal. Identifying and measuring key performance indicators such as environmental conditions, harvest yields, or lab testing results can provide valuable insights on what areas of production need improvement.

With consistent tracking of KPIs, you can make informed decisions about your business operations that can translate to increased profitability.

4. Remote Monitoring

Maintaining optimal environmental conditions is imperative for healthy cannabis plants. There are a variety of factors involved in creating the ideal climate, such as light intensity, temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels. These must remain in a healthy range at all times, even after hours and over the weekend.

Having the ability to remotely monitor your facility or facilities is the best way to ensure that everything is operating as it should be – even when you’re not physically there.

For example, if the temperature were to spike due to equipment failure, a monitoring system that notifies you with an alert can be a lifesaver and potentially mitigate the loss of an entire crop.

Software with remote monitoring capabilities is a great way for cannabis business owners to protect their investment and gain peace of mind.

5. Simple Integrations

Software integrations, the process of linking two computing systems together, can create a lot for value for customers. Integrations can eliminate the need for dual data entry or provide a single location for information instead of multiple dispersed systems.

Selecting a software system that integrates with other technology already deployed in the grow or that an organization intends to implement can save cultivation businesses a lot of time and money.

With the advancement of the industry, efficiency has become a critical focus for commercial cultivators.

Businesses are looking for ways to improve their processes, reduce production costs and optimize for the future. Adopting a smart software system is the best way to collect the information necessary to achieve these goals.

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JR, First of His Name, Nonconformer of Norms, Thinker Outside the Box, and Revolutionary Against the Ordinary is the Senior Writer and Editor for Greendorphin. If he is not making alliances with other Writer Houses or is on a quest to invade and influence the minds of the non-believers of the benefits of Medical Cannabis you can see him playing with his two lovely dogs.