Precision Pays

We already got an update on the Pursuit of Maximum Yields (POMY) project in Ontario – now we hear from Central Illinois.

Jerry Harbour, an agronomist and certified crop specialist with Lincoln Land FS in Illiopolis, says the objective of POMY is to get consistent 300 bushel yields on corn and 100 bushel beans. “We do a lot of corn on corn so that’s another challenge here in central Illinois to get consistently high yields as we grow into continuous corn acres,” he said.

Jerry says when it comes to gathering information, they are using lots more precision farming techniques. “Trying to be more accurate and knowing what we’re doing, instead of flags and pens and paper, we’re trying to document with GPS as well,” he said.

Nitrogen application is a big focus of the POMY trials and this year trials came out very well. “I had about six different trials and they all turned out very positive,” he said. “We did a lot of work this year with impregnated urea for a side dress application for corn – and all of those showed a profit. It seemed like everything we did with nitrogen this year was a win for the grower. Worst case was that they broke even in a couple of cases.”

Jerry says he is blessed with some very progressive farmers in his area who are willing to take some risks to improve their yields and share their knowledge with other growers. Results of this year’s POMY trials will be presented to growers at meetings in February.

Listen to or download my interview with Jerry here: Jerry Harbour Interview

Idaho is synonymous with potatoes, but there is more corn in the ground there these days to support a growing dairy industry.

USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have found that some Pacific Northwest farmers can increase corn yields by using strip tillage and banding fertilizer instead of conventional tilling. Strip tillage and banding involves excavating a single row for planting about 6 to 12 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches deep with a knife-like shank that can also inject fertilizer directly below the seed.

The scientists found that using these practices increased corn grain yields on severely eroded soils st higher elevations by 12 percent the first year and 26 percent the second year. This translated into yield increases between 11 and 26 bushels per acre.

Read more from ARS here.

Photo courtesy of David Tarkalson, ARS.

This week I participated in the Conservation Technology Information Center’s Indian Creek Watershed Project field tour. Several bus loads of participants visited Livingston County, IL area farms to see and hear how they are implementing best management practices for things like nutrient management.

One of the people working on the project with CTIC and a presenter is Harold Reetz. I visite with Harold prior to the start of the day’s activities. I’ll see him again next week in Sprinfield, IL for the InfoAg Conference. Since that’s all about precision agriculture and since that is an integral part of the BMP’s being implemented on the tour stops here we decided to call it “precision conservation.”

Harold says the project purpose is to demonstrate different best management practices for nitrogen. It’s a relatively small watershed with mostly corn and soybean crops. So the goal is to come up with practices to improve nitrogen efficiency which will reduce the amount that will get into the ground water. Local farmers have volunteered in this first year of the project to implement suggested practices and it is their farms we visited.

The project is receiving funding from a variety of sources that includes the Illinois EPA. It is a proactive approach to voluntarily manage natural resources without the need to have new regulations. That sure seems like a potentially win win situation for all parties.

You can listen to my interview with Harold here: Harold Reetz Interview

CTIC Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour Photos

“Balancing Fertilizer Price Risk and In-Field Management to Optimize Yield and Profitability” was the topic of a Learning Session at the 2011 Commodity Classic in Tampa last week, sponsored by John Deere.

Deere’s Pauley Bradley, manager of nutrient applications, had a full house for the session which discussed nitrogen practices today, concerns that fall anhydrous application may not be around in the future, and the “Four R” approach to nutrient stewardship. “Right now, our corn stocks to use ratio is very tight, so yield is important, but we have to balance that with the environmental concerns,” Pauley said. “So we’re trying to maximize yield while having the least amount of environmental impact.”

Pauley says John Deere introduced the 2510 line of nutrient applicators a few years ago, one of which provides a way to apply anhydrous ammonia allowing for more side-dressing or in-season capabilities. “We’ve really tried to focus on the in-crop application, doing a better job of reading the crop’s needs as it’s growing and responding accordingly,” he said.

Find out more here.

Listen to or download an interview with Pauley here: John Deere's Pauley Bradley on Nutrient Management

Thanks to John Deere for helping to sponsor our coverage of the 2011 Commodity Classic!
2011 Commodity Classic Photo Album

Precision agriculture is playing a much larger role in helping potato growers become more sustainable, according to a recent story in Spudman.

Bruce Crapo, a grower of 6,000 acres of commercial potatoes and 2,000 acres of seed potatoes in Idaho, is a good example of how the average potato farmer looks at precision agriculture – he uses technology to reduce costs, increase output and improve profits.

Crapo isn’t thrilled at the cost of high-tech equipment such as GPS-guided tractors, but he knows it’s saving him money and there’s no way he can turn back now.

“There is a substantial initial cost involved,” Crapo said. “But I also know it is saving me money. What do you do? Go back to what you were doing before? That’s not an option.”

Crapo, who uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology on all his planters and harvesters, said the latest precision ag technology has taken farming to a different level.

“It’s light years ahead of what it was when we were doing it by hand,” he said. “We’re not going to go back to not using it, but we are wincing a little at the cost.”

Precision agriculture can loosely be defined as using new technologies such as GPS, sensors, variable rate application equipment and aerial or satellite images to make farming easier and more profitable.

Simply put, precision agriculture can help farmers improve their margins by decreasing their operating costs.

Idaho farmer Robert Blair, owner of PineCreek Precision, says the biggest benefit of precision farming is that it gives producers the ability to manage their farm on a production zone basis rather than a whole field basis. This shift, he said, allows farmers to save time and money and helps them offset the rising cost of chemicals, nutrients, fuel and fertilizer.

Blair uses a wide array of precision agriculture techniques on his 1,500-acre farm and said the technology is saving him tens of thousands of dollars every year.

Read on to learn more…

Precision agriculture means more than just the use of equipment and technology to save time and money, it also means the “application of technologies and agronomic principles to manage spatial and temporal variability associated with all aspects of agricultural production for the purpose of improving crop performance and environmental quality.”

At the recent GROWMARK FS Green Plan Solutions “In Pursuit of Maximum Yields” conference in East Peoria, growers and consultants heard from two University of Illinois experts on how to maximize corn and soybean yields.

Dr. Fred Below gave his “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World” presentation to the audience. “The seven wonders concept was designed for us to put a value and ranking behind those factors that every year impact corn yields,” said Dr. Below. “Number one is the weather, number two is my favorite – nitrogen, three is the most important decision farmers make each year – hybrid selection, number four has to do with crop the year before, number five is plant population, number six is tillage or no tillage and number seven is a new broad category called growth regulators. And these factors together can combine and maximize to produce up to 260 bushels.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. Fred Below here: Fred Below Interview

Dr. Vince Davis discussed how it takes a total management approach to increase soybean yields. “In soybeans, increasing yields is a really tough game to get into,” Vince told me. “About 10 bushels, 9 and a half bushels an acre is about what we were able to obtain in our large plots, and that’s about what I’ve seen as a maximum level that we can increase. If you can put up 10 extra bushels at $13 beans, that’s a lot of extra money.”

Vince urges farmers to get as much information as they can and experiment to find out what works on their own operations and he had praise for GROWMARK and FS Green Plan Solutions agronomists working with producers. “We worked with one of our local agronomists at the Illini FS location and they are doing a great job getting on the farms, finding out what growers are interested in doing, what does and doesn’t work on the farm, and do it all from the standpoint of economics,” he said.

Listen to my interview with Dr. Vince Davis here: Vince Davis Interview

FS Green Plan Solutions, an integrated, solutions-based approach designed to help producers enhance farm profitability by providing complete agronomic recommendations from a trusted team of FS specialists.

For wheat growers who normally top-dress nitrogen, the use of crop sensors could boost yields and reduce over or under application.

Today, Ag Leader Technology, Inc., a leader in the development of precision farming solutions, announced the release of the North American Wheat algorithm for OptRx, a crop sensor used for mapping, data collection and real-time variable rate nitrogen application. OptRx crop sensors determine a vegetative index reference value based on a plant with sufficient nitrogen and prescribe nitrogen rates based on plants’ crop vigor, taking into account field variability and crop conditions.

“Using OptRx for nitrogen application in wheat can help prevent yield loss commonly due to overapplication, especially in early growth stages,” says Roger Zielke, Product Manager. “Another major factor that OptRx can help account for is the variability in organic matter within fields. Variable rate nitrogen application with OptRx can compensate for these differences in organic matter, and our field trials have shown that it will help maximize profit potential by delivering the right amount of nitrogen to the right plant.”

OptRx can help improve nitrogen efficiency by scanning and measuring the impact of growing conditions on a plant, ultimately helping growers improve environmental stewardship and maximize profit potential. Nitrogen application on wheat can occur anytime between tillering and stem elongation, and any top-dress applicator can be used with OptRx for nitrogen application. Because OptRx uses a light-sensing technology that is not dependent on ambient light, OptRx can be used to apply nitrogen, whenever optimum conditions are available day or night. OptRx crop sensors are also available for nitrogen application in corn.

Researchers with the University of Missouri have found a way to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by agricultural operations, while increasing the yields of the crops. And precision agriculture equipment is playing a key role.

Research agronomist at MU’s Greenley Research Center in northeast Missouri Kelly Nelson says that ag operations in the U.S. create 58 percent of the world’s nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that contributes 300 times more to global warming than carbon dioxide. His work is focusing on the placement and source of fertilizers to reduce that nitrous oxide number.

“The fertilizer placement for a no-till system would be, for dry fertilizers, would be broadcast applied over the soil surface. We thought with a strip-till system we can till a small area, usually about 12 inches wide, usually less than 30 percent of the field, and maintain good soil cover, and apply that fertilizer in a band right under the plant so it has easy access to the fertilizer.”

He says using an enhanced-efficiency polymer coated urea and non-coated urea, they were able to test in a clay pan soil, where there is very poor internal drainage and fertilizer loss can be substantial.

“We saw that over the entire growing season, we were emitting about 2.4 to 3.8 percent of the nitrogen applied as nitrous oxide.” Nelson says that while it doesn’t seem like a big number, it shows how much greenhouse gas can be emitted into the atmosphere. Plus, he says this system was able to increase yields. “We were seeing that our strip-till system was increasing yields by about 50 bushels to the acre (in corn), compared to our no-till system.” And it reduced greenhouse gas emissions by about 25 percent, compared to no-till systems.

Nelson admits that they didn’t compare the amount of emissions for running the extra equipment in the strip-till versus no-till operation, but that would be a comparison of CO2 emissions, and as stated earlier, much less impactful when you are considering greenhouse gases. Plus, the increased yields should help make up any differences by increasing the amount of carbon sequestration going on in the higher yielding strip-till operations.

He credits new, advanced precision agriculture equipment and practices for even making this kind of work possible.

“Getting the right product at the right time in the right place, that’s what we’re working toward. Precision ag is moving us in that direction.”

Listen to my interview with Kelly here: Kelly Nelson, MU research agronomist

Trimble offers a new Field-IQ system that controls and monitors seed and fertilizer delivery capabilities to enhance variable-rate functionality.

The Field-IQ system pairs seamlessly with the guidance capabilities of the Trimble FmX integrated display or CFX 750 touch screen display, which both run Trimble’s unique overlap detection technology. Farmers using the Field-IQ crop input control system for seed placement have reported average savings of 5-10 percent from reduced seed input costs and less waste.

Trimble’s Field-IQ system is compatible with a wide variety of crop and application equipment, providing monitoring for planters, air seeders for small grains, or granular strip till systems. Seed monitoring on row crop planting systems allows operators to obtain information related to how their seeding system is performing. This includes factors such as singulation, skips and multiples, and quality of spacing for an entire planter average or detail by individual row. For fertilizer, variable rate application capabilities can be driven by a prescription map or real-time with Trimble GreenSeeker sensors.

The Field-IQ system is easy to install on application equipment from a broad range of manufacturers, allowing farmers and custom applicators to use and enhance the performance capabilities of their existing equipment without having to start from scratch.

“The new Field-IQ enhancements optimize planter operation by delivering more accurate seed placement, giving the operators more confidence in their planting applications,” said Erik Arvesen, vice president and general manager of Trimble’s Agriculture Division. “With the addition of rate and application control for up to six different materials, the system now manages functions that span the entire growing season.”

The new seeding and multi-rate capabilities for the Field-IQ system are expected to be available in March 2011. Contact a local Trimble dealer at www.trimble.com/locator for more information.

The fourth largest indoor farm show in the country is prepping for it’s 56th annual show in Des Moines, Ia., on February 1-3. It continues to break attendance records now for seven years in a row, with around 19,000 attendees spread out among six floors in the three buildings that comprise the Iowa Events Center (Hy-Vee Exhibit Hall, Wells Fargo Arena and Polk County Convention Complex). This year you’ll find around 640 companies exhibiting their products and services.

I caught up with Katie Beeler yesterday, Ag Leader’s marketing communications coordinator, to talk about their presence at the show. Aside from being a major sponsor at the three-day event, the company will conduct three educational sessions during the show.

• Tuesday, February 1 at 11:30am, Ag Leader’s Chad Huedepohl will talk about the OptRx Crop Sensor system. You’ll learn how they measure and record data as you drive through the field—providing information on crop health, while allowing you to apply prescription nitrogen rates based on plant need.

• On Wednesday, February 2 at 10:45 am, Jeff Bentley from Ag Leader will help growers understand its ParaDyme Autosteer system and CORS networks. Come learn about the most advanced guidance system, and how it has the capability of using built-in cellular signals for remote service and connection to the CORS network.

• Also Wednesday at 12:15 pm, Ag Leader’s Michael Vos will discuss the power of all the data that can be collected during a cropping season, and show how the company’s SMS software can work the data to help improve management decisions.

Click on ‘Seminars’ at the Iowa Power Farming Show website for the entire rundown.

And if new products excite you, Beeler says Ag Leader will be talking about three new precision farming tools at their booth, along with their full product line. “Come learn about our new Advanced Seed Monitoring through the SeedCommand system that improves planter performance monitoring and control through the INTEGRA display. We’ll also showcase the new GPS 2500 all-in-one antenna and GNSS Receiver that can utilize GLONASS satellites and differential correction from WAAS/EGNOS and OmniSTAR XP/HP/VBS. And we’ll have the new Mesa Rugged Notepad at the show running our SMS Mobile software so growers can check out this valuable in-field tool,” she says. Ag Leader will be in Booth #306 in the Polk County Convention Complex.

The Iowa Power Farming Show is sponsored in part by Farm Credit Services of America, Ag Leader Technology, Bayer CropScience, Stine Seed, and The Stewart-Peterson Group. The show is owned and managed by the Iowa-Nebraska Equipment Dealers Association (I-NEDA). I-NEDA represents over 400 agricultural, outdoor power and industrial equipment dealers throughout Iowa and Nebraska. For more information about the show and a list of show exhibitors, visit www.iowapowershow.com.

Visit these links for more information.
Iowa Power Farming Show http://www.iowapowershow.com/

New Advanced Seed Monitoring
http://www.agleader.com/2010/12/03/ag-leader-announces-advanced-seed-monitoring-functionality-for-integra™-display/

New GPS 2500 GNSS Receiver
http://www.agleader.com/2010/11/01/ag-leader-announces-new-gps-2500-gnss-receiver/

New Mesa Rugged Notepad
http://www.agleader.com/2010/11/01/ag-leader-offers-new-hardware-option-for-sms™-mobile/

Ag Leader dealer locator http://www.agleader.com/dealer-search/

The precision irrigation from Valley has now teamed up with the variable-rate precision data services of CropMetrics.

This agreement creates an alignment of Valley Irrigation dealers with the latest in agronomic technology to provide growers true precision irrigation with center pivots. Valley Irrigation with VRI Zone Control, and CropMetrics with automated agronomic VRI prescription services, are also proud to announce their AE50 awards for 2011 as a top 50 innovative new product produced in 2010.

“Precision Irrigation starts with building a precise water management plan,” said Craig Malsam, Valmont Irrigation Vice President of Engineering. “Applying the optimum level of water and nutrients through a center pivot is more important than ever. We’re excited to be the first in our industry to supply a whole new dimension of precision irrigation through our agreement with CropMetrics and their optimization service available through our Valley dealers.”

“As our single most valuable natural resource, applying excess water is an unnecessary cost. Apply too little water, and yield potential is now lost as well. Our solution is to optimally apply water specific to soil type,” said Nick Emanuel, CropMetrics President. “We’re excited to work with Valley dealers and offer Valley customers the ability to take Precision Agriculture to the next level with our unique precision agronomic solutions and data services.”

CropMetrics specializes in full-service data collection, processing, and advanced yield analysis. The company supplies all proprietary web-based software and large-scale data processing so agronomists, crop consultants, ag retailers and Precision Ag specialists can focus on providing fast, reliable and profitable Precision Ag programs for variable rate irrigation, nitrogen and seeding.

Valley Irrigation VRI Zone Control provides individual sprinkler or span control and is fully compatible with all new and existing center pivots equipped with the Valley Irrigation Pro2 control panel. The Pro2 panel uses power line communication to remotely manage as many as 30 VRI Zone Control units. This allows each individual control unit to be easily positioned at any point along the pivot span. Because the new VRI Zone Control utilizes the on-board computing power of the Valley Irrigation Pro2 panel in combination with power line communication, the added VRI equipment cost is very reasonable.

“We believe that combining Valley Irrigation control technology with CropMetrics precision services is the future of mechanized irrigation,” said Malsam. “Producers with pivot irrigation have always been able to control how much water is applied to a field. But this technology allows producers to control how much water, fertilizer and other crop management products are variably applied based on precise agronomic data.”

The AE50 awards will be announced during a presentation at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) Agricultural Equipment Technology Conference (AETC) in Atlanta, Ga. on January 6 as part of the AG CONNECT Expo. Representatives from CropMetrics and Valley Irrigation will be available to demonstrate the new VRI technology in the Valley Irrigation booth at AG CONNECT.

This past week, I caught up with Matt Darr, Iowa State University ag engineer and precision farming guru, to chat with him about this past year in precision agriculture.

“We’ve said for a few years now that ‘accuracy is addictive.’ Well farmers are proving that as this has been a year driven by higher precision—a move to more RTK accuracy.”

The big deal. Darr cited the widespread nature of expanding RTK networks, both public and privately owned. “These networks are pushing us towards RTK becoming a standard commodity, which will help drive down the costs and give more growers the potential to achieve high-end accuracy. And that is a big deal.”

The CORS network has had a strong run over the past three years. Indiana is now online as the most recent, along with CORS networks in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri. “I see this growth slowing down, but we’ll continue to see greater stabilization and improvement in the signals,” Darr says.

In the private sector, we’re seeing greater expansion from Trimble’s VRS network and from John Deere’s StarFire 450 MHz radio system, as well as other smaller companies building systems across the Midwest.

Crop sensing. Another big push is on to figure out how to use active crop sensing to provide financial benefit. “With the addition of Ag Leader’s OptRx system, along with the Greenseeker from Trimble and CropSpec from Topcon, growers have the potential to unlock another area of profitability. It’s not as simple as auto guidance, and it may not work for everyone,” Darr says.

This technology offers a natural fit in wheat, since growers are used to topdressing in the spring. “Anytime you can automate N applications, you’re looking at both economic and environmental benefits. A reduction in the over-application of N is a big deal,” Darr says.

“The challenge for Midwest corn growers is that not every producer uses sidedressed N when corn is 12 to 18 inches tall, which is where this technology needs to be used. So you’re asking growers to change production practices as well as adopt new technology, so these challenges will slow adoption. But it offers huge potential,” he adds.

The future. “If you look back 4 or 5 years, and think about the automation technology that has come out—from auto swath to auto steer—all the easy things, relatively speaking, have been automated. Future automation gets tougher. We now need to circle back to data and press that information into greater knowledge. That’s what we’re after. We must gain knowledge from all this data to improve our operations,” he says.

GPS World offers a look at their top five events in GPS/GNSS for 2010, so check it out, too. http://www.gpsworld.com/survey/top-5-events-gpsgnss-2010-a-year-end-review-10854

Visit these links for more information.

CORS Network
http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/CORS/GoogleMap/CORS.shtml

Learn How CORS Network Can Fit Precision Farming
http://precisionpays.com/2010/01/learn-how-cors-network-can-fit-precision-farming/

Lessons in Differential Correction
http://www.agleader.com/2010/07/02/lessons-in-precision-ag-differential-correction-part-2/

RTK Network Options
http://farmindustrynews.com/precision-guidance/rtk-network-options

Ag Leader dealer locator
http://www.agleader.com/dealer-search/

The Alabama Precision Ag team has compiled three good publications on automatic section control (ASC) for sprayers, planters and spreaders.

Automatic section control (ASC) has been one of the most adopted precision ag technologies in recent years. This technology has the ability to save producers on input costs by minimizing application overlap at headlands, point rows, or other odd-shaped areas of fields. Our research suggests a 2% to nearly 30% savings in fields when using ASC and guidance technology. Further, ASC can improve on-farm environmental stewardship by eliminating application in environmentally sensitive areas (e.g. grassed waterways, buffer strips, etc) or outside field boundaries. Frequent comments by those who have adopted ASC is that they want to implement on all their application technology (sprayer, planter, side-dress unit, etc.) and it reduces fatigue over long work days by automating the on and off of sections.

To help producers and others interested in ASC, the Alabama Precision Ag Team has put together 3 publications providing a general overview of ASC, needed components, and company information for planters, sprayers and spinner spreaders. Many times the expense to purchase ASC for a machine is relatively small compared to the savings it provides on crop inputs. We hope this information can help those looking to purchase ASC during this off season. Please let us know if you have any questions or we can assist in anyway.

The following provides direct links to each of these publications.

ASC for Sprayers
ASC for Planters
ASC for Spreaders

For more information, please visit www.alabamaprecisionagonline.com.

Fertilizer production costs will be substantially higher in 2011 than they’ve been for the past couple of years. When you look at the numbers, remember that commodity prices also have increased significantly.

If you are a shrewd marketer, you have taken advantage of crop pricing opportunities that will help offset the higher production costs. You may still be able to find a few holiday bargains for pre-paid fertilizer, however, most of the good deals ended in November. Following these tips can help you achieve a profitable fertilizer program for 2011

10 Tips for Getting the Most from Your Fertilizer Investment

• Follow a good soil testing program to know macro and micronutrient levels.
• Use the most efficient methods to apply phosphorus (starter or strip-till application) and timing options/methods/sources for nitrogen.
• Take deep soil samples for residual nitrate to fine-tune N rates.
• Set realistic yield goals. Expected yield is the major factor in determining the nitrogen rate for corn. Use a proven five-year average corn yield plus 5% (to account for hybrid and management improvements).
• Credit N from previous crop residue or legume crops. Soil tests will not show legume or crop residue credits as the residue or nodules must break down during the growing season. Credit N for corn after soybean, sugar beet, alfalfa, and dry beans.
• Value and use manure sources properly. Manure is an excellent nutrient source for nitrogen, phosphorus, and micronutrients.
• Not all fertilizer recommendations are the same. UNL fertilizer recommendations may seem conservative compared to some commercial labs. UNL suggestions are based on research and on-farm verification. They are generally the most economical rates, even for high yield situations.
• Consider replicated strip trials to determine the effect of lower or higher rates on yield. Fine-tuning fertilizer use needs to be an on-going process.
• Comparison shop. Look at different products and do your “fertilizer arithmetic” to compare the actual cost per pound of nutrients.
• Work with a reputable dealer who can provide quality product, price assurances, timely delivery, and well-maintained equipment. Remember, service after the sale is also important.

Gary Hergert, Extension Soils Specialist
Panhandle REC, Scottsbluff

See more recommendations for surviving high input costs.

You know how sometimes things happen in farm fields that are either out of your control, or perhaps something known as operator error. Well, some of those oops provide valuable learning experiences, don’t they?!

Such was the case with central Nebraska farmer Kurt Kroeger. Now Kroeger is a fairly advanced precision ag aficionado, playing with many things on his 1,250 acres. He’s a big fan of Ag Leader because the tools work well with all colors of equipment that he owns. And he’s become a whiz at SMS Advanced software to write his own variable-rate (VR) seeding and fertility prescription maps.

Another technology that has intrigued him since the late 1990s is the nitrogen crop sensor. “I followed the GreenSeeker sensor since it came out. Then I watched the Holland sensor become Ag Leader’s OptRx technology—and became one of the first to buy them.”

So, this past spring he mapped out a good test in a couple fields under pivots. “In one section of the corn field I applied a high rate (44 lbs./acre) of 32 percent nitrogen plus thiazole as a high yield check. In the second section I applied 32 percent based on the OptRx sensor, and in the third section I applied the nitrogen according to my fertilizer supplier’s best VR map based on soil type and fertility,” Kroeger says.

Then, that unplanned ‘fluke test’ happened, as he calls it. “The coolest thing in the world happened. When the corn was a foot tall, my mini-corner pivot got stuck all night and watered one spot heavily. As you can imagine, in another couple weeks when I applied the fertilizer, I had a nice and visible section shaped like a Nike swoosh mark in the field where all the nitrogen had leached away,” he says.

The OptRx sensors recognized the deficient plants in his ‘swoosh’ area and applied 50 to 56 gal., which was quite a bit higher than the whole field average of 34 gal. And compared to the 36 gal. on the retailer VR section, the OptRx not only saved 2 gal. it produced more yield too. These results not only sold Kroeger on the OptRx technology, but it changed his whole point of view on fertility in his sandier soils.

“The OptRx produced more uniform and higher yields, based on a philosophy of feeding all plants that need more fertility, which is different then the soil map VR philosophy that feeds the good areas and starves the poor areas of a field. It makes the whole field more uniform. I want every acre to pay for itself.”

Needless to say, Kroeger is sold on using the OptRx on all his corn next year. “If I had achieved the same results across my whole farm as I did in the plots, the system would have paid for itself this year alone,” he adds.

His next learning challenge…figuring out a way to use it on his sprayer to apply N using drop nozzles.

Visit these links for more information.

The OptRx Crop Sensor
http://www.agleader.com/products/directcommand/optrx/

Blog posts on OptRx technology
http://www.agleader.com/category/optrx/

SMS Advanced software
http://www.agleader.com/products/sms-advanced/

Ag Leader dealer locator
http://www.agleader.com/dealer-search/