Switching from FarmKeep starts with an export-and-verify step most growers skip: pull what your current system can actually export before you decide anything, and check whether the export contains what your decisions run on. A migration is only as honest as its export — if the file you get back is unreadable, incomplete, or missing the daily records, the switch becomes a reconstruction project instead of a transfer. This page covers the verification checklist for growers leaving FarmKeep, the staged cutover, and what the new record produces. It makes no claims about FarmKeep's features — the checklist items are yours to answer against your own account.
The Export-and-Verify Checklist
| Verify In Your FarmKeep Account | What To Check |
|---|---|
| Export capability | Pull an export while you still have full access. Open it: does it contain daily logs, flock lists, and any financial rows — or only a summary? |
| Report reproduction | Name the two or three reports your decisions run on habitually. Can the export reproduce their numbers, or only their shape? |
| Record completeness | For each active flock: placement data, recent weights, feed deliveries, mortality — the current state you would seed into any new system. |
| Second-person entry | If anyone else logs records, their experience after the switch decides whether entries keep happening in month two. |
The Staged Cutover
The method follows the cluster standard (the migration hub covers it fully): start at a clean boundary — a new flock placement or the first of a month; seed the active flock's current state from the checklist above; move finance history through the finance CSV import where the export provides rows (Growth plan and above); keep FarmKeep read-only for one full cycle — dual maintenance kills migrations; and verify at the first settlement compared line-by-line against the new record. The spreadsheet guide covers the same method for file-based operations.
What the New Record Produces
The migration's payoff is computed outputs instead of maintained records: cost per bird from per-flock expenses, growth against the growth chart from logged weights, and the profitability dashboard across flocks. The farm software comparison covers how to weigh these against what your current system provides; the budget template runs on the imported and logged finance data from the first placement after the boundary.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if the FarmKeep export is incomplete?
Then transcribe what matters — the active flock's state and two to three flocks of summary numbers — and treat the old system as the read-only archive for the rest. The backup guide covers preserving the archive properly.
Should I switch mid-flock?
No — mid-flock boundaries force dual entry across two systems, and dual entry is where migrations die. Start at a new flock placement or the first of a month; the migration hub covers why the boundary is the first decision.
How do I know the migration worked?
The first settlement compared line-by-line against the new record. A record that can settle a flock is complete enough to run the operation on — the comparison method runs from there.
- 2026-10-06: Comprehensive rewrite as an honest export-and-verify migration guide — reader-answered checklist, staged cutover reference, and no competitor feature claims — replacing the earlier version with fabricated first-person claims.
- Earlier version: first-person narrative about switching from FarmKeep.