Consistent and Confidential Data Collection Using a Google Form

A Form makes data input
easy and consistent

A few years ago I wrote a post about using google forms to keep data collection consistent. I was recently talking about data input and some of the issues associated with many different staff taking part in said data collection and it reminded me just how useful forms can be for a golf course operation.

The key to any successful operation is monitoring what you are doing and analyzing this data to make intelligent changes. If this isn't done, all you can do is guess. Google forms allow you to easily access the portal to add data directly into a spreadsheet in a user friendly way. You don't have to find the specific cells where data needs to go and you can keep the collected data confidential. Forms can be embedded on any website or shared via email to anyone you want, no matter what device or operating system they use.

In order to easily analyze your collected data it needs to be consistent. Not just in the frequency of collection instances, but also in the spelling and formatting of the data collected. To a computer, Green is different than greens and cut is different than mow. This is where forms really shine. They allow you to select the appropriate responses and put them in a multiple choice or drop down menu format. This makes it impossible for the people collecting the data to input it in a way that is inconsistent from one another.

Using forms along with a few of the tips I discussed in a recent post will help your data collection that much more efficient and useful to your maintenance operation in the future. Did I mention it's free?

Raw data collected by my staff is consistent and ready to be filtered. It is also not accessible to my staff.

Turfgrass speedo is still my most important tool for managing turf growth after 4 years.

It wasn't the easiest year for growing grass , but the conditions were still pretty good. Almost 4 years ago exactly, I came up with the idea of comparing actual clipping yields to the "ideal" clipping yield or the clipping yield adjusted using the Growth Potential Model . Since then, it has proved to be a much more useful tool to manage growth than I originally thought . It has been almost a decade since I started making observations on plant health and playability and how it relates to the clipping yield. I have been constantly searching for ways to get the growth rate right as often as I can and this tool seems to be the best way I have seen so far, and might ultimately, be the best way going forward. To prove this point I will discuss in a future post, the success I've had with pest control in the past few years (for the most part (Not withstanding the times where I think my greens are dead but they actually aren't...thanks T)). Never needed less There are ...

Do you have enough?

I recently discussed how we can use fertilizer ratios to simplify how much fertilizer we apply to help us keep above the MLSN guidelines . When we get a soil test done it is a static amount of nutrients found in the soil. Even if you are above the MLSN guidelines at the time of testing, it doesn't guarantee that you will remain at or above the guidelines as the grass grows and consumes nutrients. There is math that you can use to determine exactly how much nutrient you need to apply to ensure that you remain at or above the MLSN guidelines. For many, this is much too complicated. For that reason I made a quick cheat sheet to help you determine how much of each nutrient you can expect to use each year based off a few different annual nitrogen rates. Nutrient use is based primarily on nitrogen use so the left 2 columns are a few different nitrogen rates. The columns for each nutrient are in PPM and are designed to help you look at your current soil test PPM (mehlich 3) and determin...

How to quantify nutrient content in liquid fertilizer

In a recent post, I discussed how it was actually cheaper to spray soluble vs granular fertilizer. What about if we use pre-mixed liquid fertilizer? How do we even figure out how much nutrient we are applying with pre-mixed liquid fertilizer? Before I learned that you could simply dissolve soluble fertilizer in water and apply it in a sprayer, I was a big user of pre-mixed liquid fertilizers. One of the issues I initially had was figuring out exactly how much of each nutrient I was applying. The math wasn't as straightforward is it was with granular fertilizers. It turns out, it's actually not that difficult but requires an extra step. First, we need to convert the liquid volume into a mass. Many products will have the product density displayed on the label or you can look in the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for that information as well. No SDS? Should you be using products without an SDS? Even if this information isn't included on the label it is very easy to figure out. All ...

Fusariummy

Search This Blog