One of the great things about precision agriculture is that technology is constantly evolving in order to make farming more productive. Variable rate fertilization and seeding is becoming increasingly popular and continues to be adopted rapidly throughout the Great Plains. From this, a new technology has emerged and farmers in the market for a new planter [...]
How do we use crop yield monitoring to improve profits? To answer that question, first lets look at what impacts profit. Profit = Income – Expense That looks pretty simple at first glance. Dig a little deeper though and you will discover ways to improve a farm’s bottom line. For example, yield impacts both the [...]
Recently I was asked to contribute to an article Precision Ag Professional was putting together. The point of view from the corn belt on split nitrogen applications was interesting. I was a little surprised at the implied low number of split applications being made in the corn belt since this is a well-established practice under [...]
The current commodity prices have growers everywhere going through their crop budgets with a fine-toothed comb. Finding a trusted advisor to make sure expenses are managed properly is important in this environment. With slim margins, average isn't going to cut it in 2017. It's going to take exceptional management during these difficult times to sustain [...]
When I started with Crop Quest in 2010, the term site specific crop management or precision ag was only meant for the producers who were on the cutting edge of technology. In just this short amount of time the meaning of this term has changed tremendously. Now site specific crop management encompasses a wide variety of [...]
Being from Missouri, interning with Crop Quest in Southwest Kansas was a huge change and learning experience for me, as the agriculture industry is completely different here from what I am used to! There was one thing I was all too familiar with though; water management. During my time with the Precision Ag Team, I [...]
Having an Ace up your sleeve in a card game might get your arm broke, but having one in the game of risk management might just keep you from going broke. The Ace in the game of risk management I am referring to is in-season NDVI imagery. Crop Health Imagery from satellites provide a valuable [...]
“Heads or tails?” demands the referee as the coin is tossed into the air. Every football game begins with a choice, heads or tails. Profitable Precision Ag requires making a similar choice. It seems like with the flip of a coin, commodity prices are going up or coming down. Just like in football, we have [...]
It isn’t a question of why would you use precision agriculture (PA) on your farm? It’s a matter of why wouldn’t you use PA? As Craig Koehn, Crop Quest Agronomist from Montezuma, KS sees it, utilizing precision tools can potentially save time and money on most farms. In fact, precision agriculture is becoming such a [...]
The cost of commercial fertilizer is a significant expense each year for crop production. But fertilizer has always been an input with a positive return on investment when applied at proper rates, and when replacing nutrients that are deficient in soils. One fertilizer source that is usually in great demand where available is manure. Beef [...]
Your planter may be smarter than you think! If you were capable of dropping seeds in the field exactly where you would like them, you could expect the plants to respond in a positive way and ultimately maximize yield in that particular spot in the field. Variable rate seeding is a major step to reaching [...]
Cotton is unique to many other row crops traditionally grown in the US. While cotton is ordinarily a perennial, it is commercially grown as an annual in the US. With its indeterminate nature, cotton continues to produce new foliage even after it creates a seed. Even though vegetative growth is necessary to support reproductive growth, [...]
With the high costs of crop inputs, it is vital to ensure the inputs applied are necessary and beneficial. Yield mapping can provide the key to determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the inputs. “Many producers have yield mapping capabilities but not all take advantage of the technology,” says Craig Koehn, Crop Quest Agronomist in [...]
“Yes is does!” exclaims Farrell Allison, Crop Quest Agronomist in the Dodge City, KS Division. “At times, Precision Agriculture information and technology can be overwhelming but once all the pieces are together, it does pay,” he states. Allison consults on approximately 40 fields that are using some type of Precision Agriculture (PA) system. The most [...]
