The farm logbook (cuaderno de explotación) that every farmer has kept on paper for years is becoming an electronic record connected to the public authorities. The centrepiece is the Information System for Agricultural and Livestock Holdings and Agricultural Production (Sistema de información de explotaciones agrícolas y ganaderas y de la producción agraria, SIEX), created by Royal Decree 1054/2022 (Real Decreto 1054/2022), which brings together the Regional Register of Agricultural Holdings (Registro autonómico de explotaciones agrícolas, REA) and the Digital Farm Logbook (Cuaderno digital de explotación agrícola, CUE). The timetable has changed several times, most recently with Royal Decree 1039/2025 (Real Decreto 1039/2025), and as at 16 September 2026 it stands as follows: the CUE has been available for voluntary use since 2024, fertilisation has had to be recorded since 1 January 2026, on paper or digitally, and the electronic record of plant protection treatments becomes mandatory on 1 January 2027. This guide explains what has to be recorded, how private applications relate to SIEX, and why it makes sense for an association, a cooperative or an advisory body to integrate the logbook into its own software rather than send its members to the application of their autonomous community (region).
What is SIEX and what are its components?
Royal Decree 1054/2022 of 27 December sets SIEX up as a national platform, run by Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, that gathers agricultural, livestock and forestry information from the registers of the autonomous communities. Its components:
- Regional Register of Agricultural Holdings (REA): an electronic register run by each autonomous community that brings together the information on holdings: holder, parcels, crops, tenure arrangements, machinery, facilities. It replaces the scattered administrative registers that existed before.
- Digital Farm Logbook (CUE): the record of the holding’s activity, season by season: plant protection treatments, fertilisation, irrigation, harvest, sowing and other operations, with a minimum content set out in the annexes to the royal decree.
- Exchange with the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy): the data in the REA and the CUE is cross-checked against the single application for aid and against the area monitoring system, so that the public authorities stop asking for the same data several times.
Royal Decree 34/2025 of 21 January (Real Decreto 34/2025) amended the system to simplify its content and deadlines, and Royal Decree 1039/2025 introduced the latest postponement of the electronic record of plant protection products, in application of Regulation (EU) 2025/2203.
Timetable as at 16 September 2026
| Obligation | Date | Legislation |
|---|---|---|
| Voluntary use of the CUE by the holders of holdings | Since 2024 | RD 1054/2022 |
| Recording of fertilisation (nutrients and organic matter applied) in the logbook, on paper or digitally | Since 1 Jan 2026 | RD 1051/2022 on sustainable soil nutrition, as amended by RD 934/2025 |
| Recording of plant protection treatments on paper | Permitted until 31 Dec 2026 | RD 1039/2025 |
| Electronic recording of plant protection treatments in the CUE | Mandatory from 1 Jan 2027 | RD 1039/2025 and Regulation (EU) 2025/2203 |
| Remaining content of the CUE | Phased in as the Ministry determines for each season | RD 1054/2022 and RD 34/2025 |
The date that matters in the short term is 1 January 2027: from then on, every plant protection treatment must be entered in the CUE by electronic means, with product, dose, parcel, crop, date, pest and applicator. Anyone still keeping the logbook on paper after that date will be in breach of the rules and exposed to penalties on their CAP aid, which is subject to conditionality.
Who can keep the logbook, and how
The CUE must be kept by the holder of the holding, but the royal decree allows third parties authorised by the holder to keep it on their behalf: advisers, recognised advisory bodies, cooperatives, associations and other representatives. And it allows two technical routes:
- The autonomous community’s application, free of charge, with the forms for the minimum content.
- Private applications that record the information and transmit it to the REA and SIEX through the interoperability services whose specifications are published by the Ministry: formats, catalogues of products and crops, validations and submission protocols.
The second route is the one that matters to an organisation that already has a management system with its members in it: the logbook is filled in from the same software that holds the parcels, the purchases of plant protection products, the job sheets and the harvest deliveries, and the system sends it to the regional register without anyone keying it in again.
What an association or cooperative gains by integrating the CUE
- One piece of data, entered once: the purchase of the plant protection product at the cooperative, the applicator’s job sheet and the entry in the logbook are one and the same record, not three.
- Deadline monitoring: the system flags which members have not recorded treatments, which parcels have applications that breach the pre-harvest interval and which products have lost their authorisation.
- Traceability down the chain: the logbook feeds the traceability of the product sold, which processors and retailers increasingly ask for, and fits with NFC traceability of batches and containers.
- Advice based on data: the organisation’s technical adviser sees its members’ whole season and can plan treatments and fertilisation on the basis of real information, while also complying with the 2026 nutrient-recording requirement.
- Fewer rejections under the CAP: the SIEX validations are applied before submission and the data matches the single application.
- Service to members: the organisation offers the logbook as part of what it manages for them, instead of referring each farmer to a different application.
What the software has to do to integrate with SIEX
- A data model aligned with the minimum content of the CUE: holding, SIGPAC parcels (SIGPAC is Spain’s land parcel identification system), crops, products with their registration number, doses, dates, applicators with their certificate, machinery, pest or reason for treatment, pre-harvest interval.
- Synchronised official catalogues: the Ministry’s register of plant protection products, crops, fertilisers, so that what is recorded validates against what SIEX expects.
- Interoperability services: implementation of the web services published by the Ministry and the autonomous community for sending entries to the REA, receiving acknowledgements and looking up the holding.
- Prior validations: product authorised for the crop, dose within the label limits, certified applicator, date consistent with the season.
- The holder’s authorisation for the organisation to record on the holder’s behalf, managed and kept on file.
- Traceability and audit trail: who entered what, when and from which source, with a copy of what was sent and what was received.
- Offline mode for recording in the field, with synchronisation afterwards.
- Data protection: the holding’s data belongs to the holder; the organisation is the data processor and the system must reflect that.
The livestock parallel
In livestock farming this road has already been travelled: individual identification, movements notified to REGA (Spain’s livestock holdings register), the holding register and veterinary treatments recorded electronically, as we explain in digital livestock traceability: from ear tag to REGA without paper and in software for livestock associations. The CUE brings the same logic to crops: an electronic record, validated and transmitted, that the organisation keeps on behalf of its members from its own system.
How CEDESA does it
CEDESA develops management software for the agri-food sector, with systems for livestock associations and other organisations in the sector that integrate the holding register, movements and traceability with the official registers. Integrating the digital logbook follows the same pattern: taking the data from where it already is (purchases, parcels, job sheets, deliveries), validating it against the official catalogues and transmitting it to the regional register through the interoperability services, with traceability of every submission. And because the data belongs to the holders, we do so under ISO 27001 and the National Security Framework (Esquema Nacional de Seguridad, ENS) in both the development cycle and operations.
Frequently asked questions about the digital farm logbook
Is the digital farm logbook mandatory in 2026?
Not across the board. As at 16 September 2026, use of the CUE is voluntary; what has been mandatory since 1 January 2026 is recording fertilisation in the logbook, on paper or digitally, and from 1 January 2027 it will be mandatory to record plant protection treatments by electronic means, under Royal Decree 1039/2025.
What changes on 1 January 2027?
The record of plant protection treatments can no longer be kept on paper: every application must be entered electronically in the digital logbook, with product, dose, parcel, crop, date, reason and applicator. Paper is accepted only until 31 December 2026.
Can a cooperative or an association keep the digital logbook on behalf of its members?
Yes. Royal Decree 1054/2022 allows the logbook to be completed by third parties authorised by the holder, such as advisers, advisory bodies, cooperatives or associations, and allows them to do so from private applications that communicate with the regional register and SIEX through the Ministry’s interoperability services.
Do you have to use the autonomous community’s application, or will your own software do?
Both routes are valid: the autonomous community’s free application, or a private application that records the information and sends it to the REA and SIEX in accordance with the published interoperability specifications. Software of your own allows the data to come from the purchase, the job sheet or the parcel already on record, without keying it in again.
What happens if the digital logbook is not kept once it is mandatory?
In addition to the penalties under the legislation on plant protection products, the logbook forms part of the conditionality attached to CAP aid, so its absence or its shortcomings can translate into penalties on payments.
Conclusion
The digital farm logbook now has its first firm date: from 1 January 2027 plant protection treatments are recorded electronically, and fertilisation has had to be recorded since 2026. An association, a cooperative or an advisory body can wait for each member to fend for themselves in the regional application, or it can integrate the logbook into the system that already handles their purchases, their parcels and their work, and transmit it to SIEX through the interoperability services. If you would like to see how it fits into your software, tell us which system you use with your members today.