Harvest is in the homestretch and it’s time for farmers to start thinking about how the precision agriculture data they’ve accumulated can help build a winning strategy for 2016.
In this Corn School episode, AGRIS Co-operative agronomist Dale Cowan looks at how farmers can combine performance data and field observations to diagnose issues that contribute to lost yield.
That’s where the planter monitor comes in. Cowan shows how farmers can use this data to map variability in seed spacing and singulation and also produce ‘Goodride’ maps to determine levels of row bounce and how smooth and uniform the planter travelled over the field.
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By combining observations at the field level and map information, farmers can then, for example, determine if trash levels in poor-performing areas require planter row cleaners. Maybe more cultivation is required to soften the seedbed for better performance?
“That’s the beauty of this technology. You can lay the yield map on top of these other maps and say: did all this spacing variation and row bounce actually affect my yield?” adds Cowan. “This is how you can use the data before you start to spend a lot of money on iron.”
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