Why I Use Integrated Farm Accounting & Grain Marketing For Production Agriculture

Vince Reincke | Farmer | Traction Ag Customer Since 2023

My name is Vince Reincke, and my wife Heather and I farm in central Illinois. Along with our partners, Aaron and Charity Gingerich of Gingerich Farms, and Jeff and Amy Brown of Brown Farms, we operate together under Agriculture Partners.

Our focus is mainly on corn and soybeans, with wheat also in the rotation. In our area, wheat opens up the opportunity for double-crop soybeans, which helps both with revenue and solving rotation challenges.

At the end of the day, we’re all trying to do the same thing: accurately run a production agriculture operation. So we focus on consistently managing details as well as possible and trying to make our operations better, but not chase after the next new fad.

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Life before Traction

When I think about life before Traction, it was certainly challenging. We’ve tried just about everything, such as QuickBooks, Farm Works, and a handful of other programs. Each one solved a piece of our challenges, but never the whole thing. Accounting and recordkeeping always required too much scrutiny, double entry, and manual work.

When we looked at Traction, the integrations, especially with what was formerly Conservis, stood out. The vision of connecting accounting, grain tracking, inventory, and field-level economics into one system was exactly what we needed. And Traction rose to the top because of the integration with Advanced Farm Management, formerly known as Conservis.

Integrated farm systems

If I had to pick one favorite thing in Traction, it would be the ease of use with the Traction Pro accounting package.

Integrated accounting

To put it into perspective, when my daughter Madeline was only 14, she helped us understand whether this was gonna be the next right move or not. And to think, it didn't take a lot of guidance from me. It didn't require a lot of my time to help her understand what needed to happen, and then to get it set up the way it needed to. If a teenager can learn it quickly, it’s farmer-friendly. And if it’s going to work for the next generation, that’s telling.

For years, accounting was the part I dreaded. With Traction, it’s not just easier, it’s integrated and we can trust it.

Grain marketing and harvest tracking

Another huge win that’s available through the Traction platform formerly known as Conservis, has been the harvest and inventory features. On our farm, the moment grain comes off the combine into the cart, it can be recorded. Whether it’s through grain cart scales or our office scale that integrates directly with Traction, the data flows straight into the inventory system.

That means no more estimating, no more double-counting, and no more manual entry. From there, we can track everything by field. That makes crop insurance reporting, cost allocation, and profitability tracking so much simpler.

Contracting dashboard

When it comes time to deliver, the contracting dashboard and scale ticket tools let us manage sales, deliveries, income, and discounts in one place. This has streamlined the way we track our marketing plans, as well as our marketing. Grain marketing is complicated enough, and Traction gives us clarity while preventing mistakes.

It streamlines our grain inventories and deliveries, which helps us understand, even beyond cost, what's going on.

Traction was made just for agriculture

The truth is, Traction isn’t just “business management software.” It’s built for production agriculture. That matters. Generic farm tools don’t understand field-level costs, crop insurance reporting, or grain contracts. Traction does.

On top of that, the support team has been fantastic. Folks like Taryn, Jeri, Brian, Scott, and Phil have all gone out of their way to help us solve problems. And sometimes, they don’t just solve the issue, but we end up with an even better solution than we imagined.

At the end of the day, software is only as good as the people behind it. Traction has built a farm smart team that listens to farmers and keeps improving the product based on our feedback.

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Preparing for the future

Farming today is tough. The economics are challenging, and every dollar matters. One of the biggest benefits we’ve seen is the ability to drill down into field-level economics.

With Traction, we can evaluate:

• Fertilizer costs
• Input decisions
• Profitability at the field and zone levels

That’s the kind of clarity we need to make smart choices and it’s not just needed for this season, but for the next five years.

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Final Thoughts

For us, Traction has delivered what we’ve been looking for all along:

• Clear accounting that’s easy to use.
• Integrated grain tracking from harvest to delivery.
• Tools to understand costs and profitability at a field level.
• A knowledgeable, responsive support team that feels like a partner, not a sales rep.
  
  

At the end of the day, farming is about managing details. With Traction, we finally have a system that helps us do that without getting buried in spreadsheets. It makes running our farm like a business possible, and that’s what will keep us moving forward.

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