Precision Ag all starts with one underlying concept about all of the fields that we manage: the fact that there is variability in every single one.  When you’re out there on the combine during harvest, you always notice the areas that yield much higher than the area around them, and the areas that yield much lower nearly every single year.  So precision ag, or site-specific agriculture, brings up some questions about those areas:

• Why are we treating these poor spots exactly the same as the spots that are yielding two or even three times as much year in and year out?
• Why are we planting the same amount of seed and applying the same amount of fertilizer to areas that we know can’t support that kind of management except for maybe once every 10 years, when the conditions are perfect?
• And why don’t we maybe take some of those inputs that are being wasted on these poor areas and apply them to our higher performing areas to try and push as much production out of them as possible?

    

We use the technology that we now have access to (yield monitors, satellite imagery, variable rate (VR) planters, VR fertilizing, soil sampling, etc.) to be able to actually find and map out where these different zones are in each field and then manage them accordingly.  Basically, what precision ag is trying to do is maximize the efficiency of the inputs that we use.  It may not always save you money on inputs, but they will instead be put where they can best be utilized. And because of that, we’ll see a higher return on the field overall versus a uniform application strategy.

This is why we created the Every Acre Program: to get the best return on your investment for each and every acre of your field.

 

For more information please contact our Precision Ag Technician, Adam Kostner:

Email:  akostner@fcecks.com

Mobile:  316.518.9188