If you’re a commercial cannabis grower, or licensed producer (LP) operating in a state that uses Metrc for compliance reporting, you’ve probably realized that the system can be a bit unforgiving. You might be feeling especially lost right now if you’re in California, which just recently turned on METRC as the state’s compliance system.
Many states have selected Metrc as their track-and-trace software system used to report commercial cannabis cultivation activity and movement throughout the distribution chain (“seed-to-sale”). No matter how you feel about Metrc, compliance allows cultivation businesses to operate relatively uninterrupted and creates transparency in an industry that we all very much want to thrive.
However, tracking all of this information is burdensome to growers as it’s time-consuming, labor intensive (which means it costs $$), and it provides no additional value to their businesses , other than staying straight with the state.
Metrc Compliance is only taking your data. Think of what you could do by harnessing all that data in a tool to help you gain a competitive edge.
It seems to me that if you have to track plants from seed-to-sale for compliance, you should be cashing in on this data to learn valuable things about your business; like what are your best performing plants, what environmental conditions do your favorite strains prefer, or what are the best feeding formulations and schedules for certain strains?
Here are 3 reasons why Metrc isn’t cuttin’ it for your cannabis business:
1. Time vs. Benefit
Tracking plants from seed to sale is time consuming. Applying plant tags, recording waste, and entering harvest weights into Metrc is time consuming.
Also, Metrc can be confusing and frustrating. Cultivators within states that require the use of Metrc MUST use their system; they have no choice. Because of this, Metrc isn’t incentivized or obligated to make their system any more intuitive or user-friendly. Growers are forced into using software that offers no additional value other than reporting data.
Trym tracks batches for your personal gains by performing analysis on each harvest. So with each run you’re gaining more insight and more ability to make meaningful improvements to your processes, for a more consistent and successful outcome each time.
2. Lacks Business Insights
Metrc is simply a reporting tool. It requires diligent plant tracking but provides no analysis. We know the value of data tracking and if you’re already doing it for Big Brother, you might as well go ahead and leverage that time spent to get real insights into how to boost your production, save time, and dial in yields. Trym tracks plant batches throughout their entire lifecycle and post harvest with a complete break down of all task data and environmental conditions — now while also seamlessly keeping you compliant
3. No Link to Environmental Data
Within Metrc, you’re recording the outcome of plant batches; the flower weights, trim weights, and waste weights. But you’re not recording the activities associated with each batch (feeding, watering, plant maintenance) OR what environmental factors contributed to those outcomes. So when you complete a batch of plants, you have the effect but no cause. What’s the point in tracking yield if you don’t know what caused it? Trym tracks batches, tasks, and environmental data — all in one platform, allowing you to identify the optimal conditions for each strain you grow.
We built Trym to empower cannabis growers and support them in scaling their businesses. We integrated with Metrc to further achieve this goal and add even more value to our existing customers. While Metrc will keep you compliant, it won’t do much else, beyond giving the state the data they need to tax you appropriately. If you want to unlock the potential of your data, which you’re already required to track, come get a demo of our cannabis farm management software. You can book a demo at www.trym.io or send an email to info@trym.io to check out our new Metrc API integration and all of the other benefits to help you gain a competitive edge!
