Precision Pays

The buzz is all about precision…steering, strip-till, fertilizer placement.

During Successful Farming magazine’s annual Crop Tech Tour, editors asked growers what technology worked in the field this year–given weather extremes that ranged from severe droughts to floods. 

Tom Loitz of Geneseo, Illinois, says his new strip-till system combined with row shut-offs on his planter showed strong payback when he entered the field to begin harvest recently.

“As I got out there this fall and opened up some fields, could really tell the difference with the row shutoffs versus last year when didn’t have them. The overlap wasn’t there, and you could really tell the difference. I think it’s a nice benefit,” he says, adding that the auto-steer system he’s used for the last four years is possibly “the greatest thing ever” in how it reduces his fatigue while running in the field.

Other farmers cited fertilizer costs, and found that moving to strip-till not only saved input dollars but helped the plants use fertilizer more efficiently. And one grower cited John Deere’s RowSense technology that helped him pick up down corn.

Steve Clementz, a precision ag adviser and farmer near Geneseo, Illinois, says things like precise sprayer swath control and auto-steer have helped farmers make up time that was lost because of poor early-season conditions that delayed planting. Also, tools like Deere’s RowSense will help farmers pick downed corn, which became an issue after a severe wind storm hit Clementz’ area earlier this summer.

“RowSense takes the stress out of combining leaned-over corn,” he says. 

Watch videos of two growers who describe their technology successes during their 2009 cropping season.

The Farm Science Review is taking place in London, OH and I got to attend the precision ag field demos yesterday and found John Deere on the job.

I spoke with John Deere’s Jamie Bultemeier (pictured on the left). He was conducting a precision tillage demonstration. Jamie’s an agronomist by training so he focuses on crop production as it relates to seeding, tillage, sprayers and GPS equipment.

In his demonstration he was tying two of those together. He says they have a John Deere 2510S strip till rig being guided by John Deere RTK sub inch accuracy steering to allow for repeatable planting next spring. After running down a row a little ways he stopped to talk with farmers and they commented on how moist the ground was even though there had been little rain of late.

Questions he gets asked a lot include, “How should I set it? What fertilizer should I use? What kind of attachments should I put on?” He says he’s spoken with about an equal number of farmers who are using the technology and those who aren’t yet.

You can listen to my interview with Jamie using this link:

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(mp3 file)

I also caught Jamie doing an end of the row run during his demonstration which you can watch here:

If you’re interested you can see a lot of pictures I took at this year’s show in this photo album: Farm Science Review Photo Album