Precision Farming Hints

By Bob Linnell,

SSCA Soil Conservationist

If you buy a combine with a yield and moisture monitor:

1. Calibrate the monitor at several moisture levels in all crops.
2. Verify yields by weighing the loads before binning.
3. Save the data card for future reading in Geo-processors card reader.

If you buy a combine with yield,moisture monitor with GPS capability:

1. Assign identifier numbers to each of your fields.
2. Calibrate and verify yields as above.
3. Save the field and crop data on the card.
4. Find a card reader (or Geo-Processor) and transfer the data to a computer with the software compatible with field mapping as soon after harvest as practical. Make and keep a backup disc. You own your own data.

Cheap but important supplements to precision farming by yield and GPS mapping combine equipment.

1. Aerial photos and ground snapshots.
2. Field/farm notes on old fencelines, crop records, fertilizer and spray records, yield records by field and crop, and any record of residue removed or burned.
3. Current crop notes on rainfall, water runs, sloughs in field diagrams, seeding dates, storms.
4. Cost breakdown for inputs by field, crop type, acre.
5. Diagram of weed patches and rocks.

How do you use Field/ Yield maps/ GPS Maps?

1. Crop rotation planning.
2. Variable rate fertilizer application.
3. Nutrient application in proportion to amounts removed in the harvested crops
4. "Bank" nutrients when prices are cheap and recapture at a later date.(since you know where they are on a GPS mapped field)
5. Selective, not general, weed control.
6. Avoid misses or overlaps in Herbicide or Insecticide application.
7. Identify, areas of compaction, water management, tillage problems from the past, pest problems and disease incidence.