DATA DELIVERS MORE DOLLARS
Kevin Anderson, FarmRX Site Specific Ag Director
What do you look for in a partner? What options do you have when it comes to your data and making money from it? When you make a decision on your farm, the end goal is usually to create an efficiency that results in a better bottom line. Data delivers more dollars.
Not every farming operation is the same, and we’ve learned through the years that being able to have a relationship with a grower is one important key to success. Our FarmRx Site-Specific Data Specialists, Hannah Ammann and Tyler Brolsma, work diligently to meet with each of our Datalink Growers to discover what their data can do for their operations. What we’ve discovered is that every farm operation is different.
As prices seem to continue to be ever fluid, we want to make sure we’re doing the best we can to help growers manage inputs. Using yield monitor data to calculate removal rates for dry fertilizer application is one set of data that should be used if it is managed appropriately. We also see a benefit to collecting EC/OM data on a field to account for organic matter mineralization. We then can adjust nitrogen rates to make the most out of every pound of nitrogen being applied by using our adapt-N nitrogen management program.
I consider our adapt-N Nitrogen Management program as our ‘low hanging fruit’ when asked by someone on how can we use data to make more money. In our last growing season of 2022, our Datalink Grower group over-applied nitrogen by 24 lbs./A in a corn/soybean rotation. This number is obtained by taking the total amount of nitrogen applied to the field and calculating losses and mineralization factors utilizing the adapt-N model. With good data, you can fine-tune your yield goals in a field and know with more certainty what your organic matter is. You can also look at how different areas of your field have different loss factors by slope and soil structure.
Data is not magic; but if data is collected and arranged correctly, it can be a useful tool to help you create positive returns on many aspects of your farming operation. Reach out to any of our Site-Specific Data Specialists to go over your farm and identify your best opportunity to turn some data into dollars.
