Pasture PathThis is a plain-language guide, checked against the sources below in October 2026. It is not the standard and it is not advice from a certifier. Your certification body has the last word — ask them before you rely on anything here.
What the standard says
Organic production in Canada is governed by the Canadian Organic Standards, chiefly CAN/CGSB-32.310, Organic production systems: General principles and management standards. Its record-keeping clause (clause 4.4) is short. The heart of it:
"The operator shall maintain records and relevant supporting documentation such as visual aids (for example, maps, work-flow charts) concerning inputs and details of their use, production, preparation and transport of organic crops, livestock and products."
The records have to let someone else follow the trail. In the standard's words they "shall make it possible to trace":
- "the origin, nature and quantity of organic products that have been delivered to the production unit";
- "the nature, quantity and consignees of products that have left the production unit";
- the origin, nature and quantity of inputs and ingredients; and
- "activities or processes that demonstrate compliance with this standard."
If you farm both organically and not, the standard also calls for "an identification system … to distinguish organic and non-organic crops, livestock … and products."
How long to keep them
"Records shall be maintained for at least five years beyond their creation." Five years, from when each record was made — not from when you certified.
What they have to look like
There is no required form. The Organic Federation of Canada's standards interpretation committee puts it this way: "There is no specific format for record keeping prescribed in the standard." Records must reflect the size and complexity of the operation, and be "readily available and auditable". A notebook can pass; a shoebox of receipts with no dates will not.
The wording quoted above is from the 2020 edition. A 2026 edition has since been published and some sub-clauses were renumbered, so check clause 4.4 of the current text when you cite it.
What that means on a farm
Inspectors run two tests. The first is the audit trail: pick a product you sold and follow it back — sale, lot, harvest, field, the seed it grew from and everything that went on that field. The second is the mass balance: did you sell more than you could have grown? If the acres seeded could yield 500 kg of carrots and the sales records show 1,000 kg, you will be asked to explain.
Both tests fall straight out of records kept by field and by date:
| Record | What to write down |
|---|---|
| A map of the operation | Every field with its size, what borders it, buffers, buildings, storage and water. |
| Field history | What was grown and what was applied on each field, year by year — for land coming into organic production, back through the 36-month transition. |
| Seed and planting stock | Crop, variety, supplier, lot number, whether it was organic, and proof you searched if it was not. |
| Inputs | Every amendment, compost, pest-control or other product: what, how much, which field, what date, where it came from. Keep the label and the receipt. |
| Field activities | Seeding, cultivation, irrigation, mowing, equipment clean-out between organic and non-organic work. |
| Harvest | Date, field, crop, quantity and a lot number that follows the product from then on. |
| Storage and sales | Which bin or cooler, who bought it, how much, on which invoice, under which lot number. |
| Livestock | Where animals came from, how they are identified, feed, health treatments, time on pasture, sales. |
A way of keeping them that survives the season
- Write it down the day it happens. A record made in the cab of the tractor is worth ten reconstructed in January.
- Hang every entry on a field and a date. That is the shape the inspector reads in.
- Give every harvest a lot number and put it on the bin, the crate and the invoice.
- Keep the paper that proves it — seed tags, input labels, receipts, certificates from suppliers — filed by year.
- Print the season once a year and keep it with that year's paper, for five years.
Where Pasture Path fits, and where it does not
Pasture Path keeps the field-by-field half of this: the map with every field measured, a dated journal for each field with products, quantities and costs, seed source and organic seed on each crop, harvests with automatic lot numbers and labels, grazing days on each paddock, and a season report that lays it all out by field to print or hand over.
It does not hold your invoices, receipts, supplier certificates or sales ledger, and it does not know what your certifier allows. Keep those as you do now. And show your certifier a printed season report before your inspection, not during it.