Red Tractor assurance runs on records. The scheme sets standards for food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection, and once a year an assessor comes to check that the farm meets them. Much of that check is documentary: show me the risk assessment, show me the medicine records, show me the machinery checks. So the real question about assurance is not whether the farm is well run. It usually is. It is whether the records are there, dated and findable, when the assessor asks.
Guide · Agriculture
Red Tractor assurance records for UK farms.
The records a Red Tractor assessor asks to see, and how to keep them on the phone in the worker's pocket so audit day is a walk-through of what you already have, not a scramble through a folder of loose paper.
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The point
Records do not pass the audit on their own.
Good practice on the farm does. But the records are exactly what the Red Tractor assessor asks to see, and a missing one is a non-conformance whether the practice was sound or not. A good tool means the record was made on the day, with a date and a photo, not written up the night before the visit.
What an assessor asks for
Three kinds of record that come up every audit.
Health and safety
Assessments and checks
Risk assessments, machinery checks and COSHH records for pesticides and veterinary medicines, dated and available when asked.
Medicine recordsTreatments and withdrawals
What was given, to which animal, by whom, and the withdrawal period, kept accurately and to hand rather than reconstructed.
TraceabilityInputs and movements
Records that let the assessor follow the crop or the stock through the farm, kept as you go rather than backfilled.
The friction
The night-before scramble.
Everyone in farming knows the pattern: the assessment visit is booked, and the evening before is spent hunting for records, filling gaps from memory and printing off what should already exist. An assessor can usually tell. The record made on the day, with a date and a photo, is the one that stands up. The one written the night before is the one that raises questions.
Keep assurance records on WhatsApp
No app install. No training.
Workers log the check where the work happens, on the phone they already have. Text, voice note or a photo. Everything sits on a dashboard the office can hand to the assessor. Setup to first live workflow usually takes under a week.
The short version
- Red Tractor is a UK farm and food assurance scheme covering food safety, animal welfare and environmental protection.
- A large part of an assessment is documentary: the assessor asks to see records, not just the farm.
- Records commonly checked include health and safety assessments, machinery checks, medicine and treatment records, and traceability.
- A missing record is a non-conformance even where the practice itself was sound.
- Records made on the day, with a date and a photo, stand up better than a folder filled in the night before.
- Records do not pass the audit on their own. Good practice does. But the records are what the assessor asks to see.
What it is
What Red Tractor assurance actually checks
Red Tractor is a farm and food assurance scheme. A farm in the scheme is assessed against the standards for its sector, and the logo signals to buyers and retailers that those standards are met. The assessment is carried out by an assessor, usually once a year, and covers the farm itself and the records behind it: how stock is kept, how medicines are used, how chemicals are stored, how safety is managed, and how everything is traced.
The standards change over time and differ by sector and by scheme. Always work from the current Red Tractor standards for your enterprise, and treat this page as a general guide rather than a definitive checklist. What does not change is that records are central, and that a record you cannot produce is treated as a gap regardless of the underlying practice.
The records
What an assessor typically asks to see
The exact list depends on the sector and the current standards, but the recurring themes are consistent.
- Health and safety - risk assessments for the farm's main hazards, and the machinery checks that show equipment is maintained under PUWER
- COSHH and chemicals - assessments and records for pesticides, sheep dip and veterinary medicines, with correct storage and the right certificates of competence
- Medicine records - what was administered, to which animals, by whom, the batch, and the withdrawal period observed
- Traceability - inputs, movements and the records that let the assessor follow the crop or stock through the farm
- Training and competence - who is trained or certificated to do what, such as NPTC certificates for pesticide application
Quickler captures each of these as it happens, with a date and a photo, and keeps them on a dashboard the office can open in front of the assessor. The record exists because the check happened, not because someone remembered to write it up.
The honest bit
Records are evidence, not a substitute
It is worth being plain about what a records system can and cannot do. It does not make the farm compliant, keep the stock well, or store the chemicals safely. The farmer and the workers do that. What the record does is prove it was done, on the day it was done. That is precisely what an assessor is there to verify, and it is the part that so often falls down not because the practice was poor but because the paperwork drifted.
A record made at the point of work, with a timestamp and an image, is hard to argue with. A folder filled in the night before an audit is easy to spot and easy to doubt. Quickler moves the record to the moment of the work, so audit day becomes a walk-through of what already exists rather than a reconstruction. It does not replace the assessor's judgement or the scheme's own requirements.
Pricing
Per report, not per seat
Most record-keeping apps charge per seat. For a farm that is the wrong shape. The people making the records are seasonal, casual, family or contractors, and a per-seat bill punishes you for every extra pair of hands. The record should be free to make no matter who is on the farm.
Quickler charges per report, with unlimited users on every bundle. Bundles run from Quickler 50 at 50 pounds a month for 50 reports, up to Quickler 500 at 500 pounds a month for 500 reports. Everyone who does the work can log the record; you pay for the reports filed, not the people who could file them. Pricing is approximate and shifts, so check the current pricing page before you commit.
Questions, answered
What records does Red Tractor require?
The exact records depend on the sector and the current standards, but they commonly include health and safety risk assessments, machinery checks, COSHH records for pesticides and veterinary medicines, medicine and treatment records with withdrawal periods, traceability of inputs and movements, and evidence of training and competence. Always work from the current Red Tractor standards for your enterprise.
How do I prepare for a Red Tractor assessment?
The most reliable preparation is to keep the records as you go, so the assessment is a walk-through of what already exists rather than a scramble the night before. Records made on the day, with a date and a photo, stand up better than a folder filled in at the last minute. Check the current standards for your sector so you know what the assessor will ask for.
Does a records app make my farm pass the audit?
No. Records do not pass the audit on their own; good practice on the farm does. But the records are what the assessor asks to see, and a missing record is a non-conformance even where the practice was sound. A tool like Quickler makes the record easy to capture on the day and easy to produce on audit day. It does not replace the practice or the assessor's judgement.
Can I keep assurance records over WhatsApp?
Yes. Quickler's workflows run over the WhatsApp Business API. The worker logs the check in their existing WhatsApp chat with text, a voice note or a photo, and the record generates automatically with a date and image on a dashboard the office can open for the assessor. No separate app or login is required, and Quickler manages the WhatsApp Business API account on the farm's behalf.