crop-season-plan

name: crop-season-plandescription: "Plan a cropping season for a small or family farm: what to grow on which field, the rotation, a dated calendar from land preparation to sale, input quantities and cost, expected yield and gross margin, and the risks with a fallback for each. Use when asked to plan my season, what should I plant this year, make a crop calendar, work out seed and fertiliser needs, or is this crop worth growing. Produces a field-by-field plan, a season calendar, an input and cash budget, a gross margin estimate per crop, and a risk table."version: 1.0.0

Crop Season Plan

A season plan is a set of dated commitments made before the weather is known. The plans that hold up are the ones that say what will be bought and when, what the crop has to yield to pay for itself, and what the farmer will do if the rains are late. This skill builds that plan from the farmer's own fields, prices and experience. It does not replace local agronomic advice, and it never invents a yield or a price.

What This Skill Produces

• A field-by-field cropping plan that respects rotation and last season's crop
• A calendar: land preparation, sowing window, top dressing, scouting, harvest, storage or sale
• An input list with quantities, the month of purchase and the cash needed
• A gross margin per crop, with the break-even yield and break-even price
• A risk table with an early sign and a fallback for each risk

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided. Label anything inferred as an assumption.

• Location, climate zone or rainfall pattern, and whether the land is irrigated
• Fields: size, soil type if known, slope, last two seasons' crops
• Crops the farmer wants to grow and why (food, cash, fodder, contract)
• Yields the farmer has achieved before on this land
• Local prices for seed, fertiliser, labour, hire and transport, and the expected sale price
• Labour and machinery available, and the months when labour is short
• Cash available at the start, and when income arrives
• Market: who buys, when, and any contract or quality standard

Framework

1. Rotation first. Do not follow a crop with the same family where disease or pest carry-over is known. Alternate deep and shallow rooting crops, and include a legume where it fits.
2. Match crop to field. Water demand, drainage, slope and distance from the store decide which field takes which crop.
3. Work back from the sowing window. Fix the sowing window from local practice, then date everything else from it.
4. Quantify inputs from the farmer's own rates or from the label and the local extension recommendation, which the farmer supplies. State the rate used and its source.
5. Gross margin. Yield times price, minus variable costs (seed, fertiliser, crop protection, hired labour, hire, transport, marketing). Show break-even yield at the expected price and break-even price at the expected yield.
6. Cash calendar. Month by month, cash out and cash in, so the hungry gap is visible.
7. Risk. Late rain, dry spell, pest or disease, price fall, input shortage, labour shortage. For each: the early sign, the decision date and the fallback.

Output Format

Season plan: [farm], [season and year]

Calendar

Inputs and cash

Gross margin per crop

Cash by month: [cash out, cash in, balance]

Risks

Assumptions and gaps

• [Yields, prices or rates assumed]
• [The missing figure that would most change the plan]

Prepared from the figures supplied. Check rates and varieties with a local extension officer or agronomist.

Quality Checks

• No field repeats a crop family against the rotation rule without a stated reason
• Every yield and price is the farmer's own figure or is labelled as an assumption
• Break-even yield and price are shown for each crop
• The cash calendar shows the lowest balance and the month it falls in
• Each risk has a decision date and a fallback
• Input rates name their source

Anti-Patterns

• Do not quote a typical yield as if it were this farm's yield.
• Do not recommend a specific pesticide or dose. Refer to the label and local advice.
• Do not plan every field to its maximum. Leave room for a late start.
• Do not hide the cash gap inside an annual total.
• Do not ignore labour peaks when two crops need weeding in the same fortnight.

Example Trigger Phrases

• "I have three hectares in two fields. Plan maize and beans for the coming rains."
• "Work out how much seed and fertiliser I need and when I must buy it."
• "Is growing chillies on contract worth it at this price?"
• "Make a month-by-month crop calendar for my vegetable plots."

Run this skill in your browser: https://mohitagw15856.github.io/pm-claude-skills/skill/crop-season-plan.html