Cricket Farm Record Keeping: Batch Logs, FCR, Mortality, and Harvest Data

Why Record Keeping Determines Whether You Scale or Stall

Most small cricket operations start the same way: a few hundred bins, a notebook, and a lot of gut instinct. That approach works until it does not. When you are managing 200 or more bins across multiple cohorts, memory fails. You cannot remember which batch started on which date, which bins had elevated mortality in week two, or what your actual feed conversion ratio was last quarter.

Good record keeping converts a farm from a collection of guesses into a data-driven production system. It also protects you during audits, helps you negotiate with buyers, and is the foundation for any food safety certification program you pursue.

Batch Tracking Records

Every production batch needs a unique identifier assigned at the moment eggs are collected or hatchlings are placed into bins. A simple format like YYYYMMDD-001 (year, month, day, sequence number) works well. That batch ID travels with the cohort from egg to harvest.

At minimum, track the following per batch: start date, egg source colony or purchased stock ID, number of bins, initial stocking density, target harvest date, and assigned grow room or zone. If you move bins mid-cycle, log the move with a date.

When problems arise, you want to be able to pull every record associated with a single batch within minutes. Which feed lot was in use during that period? What was the average temperature that week? Which employee was responsible for daily checks? These questions are only answerable if records are complete.

Daily and Weekly Mortality Logs

Acceptable mortality in a well-managed cricket batch runs roughly 5 to 15% from pinhead to adult, depending on your stocking density and management practices. Anything above 20% in a cohort warrants investigation.

Record mortality at the bin level, not just the batch level. Bin-level records let you identify localized problems: a waterer that ran dry, a section of the room with a drafty wall, or a feed contamination issue that only affected three bins out of thirty.

At the end of each batch, calculate overall batch mortality as a percentage of initial stocking count. Track this figure over time to establish your baseline and detect trends. A farm that was running 8% mortality and drifts to 15% over three months has a problem somewhere that needs identifying.

Feed Conversion Ratio Records

Feed conversion ratio (FCR) is feed input divided by live weight gained. For well-managed Acheta domesticus operations, FCR on a live-weight basis typically runs between 1.8 and 2.5, meaning 1.8 to 2.5 pounds of feed produces one pound of live crickets. On a dry-weight comparison basis (which is more meaningful for ingredient buyers), FCR is often cited around 1.7.

To calculate FCR per batch: weigh all feed inputs during the grow cycle, then weigh the total live harvest. Divide feed weight by harvest weight. This number needs to be tracked per batch, not aggregated across the whole farm, or you lose the signal in the noise.

Track feed inputs by type if you are running multiple rations. Chick starter, wheat bran, and vegetable supplements all have different costs. Knowing which combination produces the best FCR at the lowest input cost is the kind of optimization that significantly affects margin at scale.

Harvest Logs

Each harvest record should include: batch ID, harvest date, harvest method (chilling, direct processing), gross live weight per bin, total batch weight, mortality count at harvest, and destination (sold live, sent to processing, frozen).

Over time, harvest logs let you calculate expected yield per bin at a given stocking density and grow duration. This is essential for production planning and for quoting delivery volumes to buyers with confidence.

Putting It Together: The Production Dashboard

The goal of all this record keeping is a simple, readable summary of farm performance. At minimum, review weekly: average batch FCR this period vs. last period, current batch mortality rates, upcoming harvests by date and expected volume, and any batches flagged for unusual activity.

CricketOps provides structured batch tracking, FCR calculation, and harvest logging in one place, so data captured daily in the app is automatically summarized into the metrics that matter. Whether you use purpose-built software or a well-structured spreadsheet, the discipline of capturing data consistently is what generates actionable insight.