Knowing your soil is critical to understanding a field’s potential and setting realistic yield goals that make economic sense for the 2025 growing season.
Heading into a the new year with depressed crop prices, growers will be looking to sharpen their pencils this winter to optimize input investment, including everything from seed and weed control to fungicides and fertilizer. On this episode of the RealAgriculture Soil School, Fieldwalker Agronomy’s Jonathan Zettler explores crop planning strategies and looks at how growers can assess the yield potential of individual fields and align yield goals for the best return on crop inputs.
Before tackling the input question, Zettler says it is important to determine the yield potential of a specific field. That’s starts with the soil test, he says. What agronomic challenges or opportunities does it reveal? Is there variability in the soil across the field? Do fertility levels also vary across the field? What about water availability and topography?
In the video, Zettler shares how he uses soil, water and topography maps — more commonly know as SWAT Maps — to evaluate field potential, set realistic yield goals and utilize strategies, including variable rate seeding and fertilizer application, to help hit those targets.
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