008: You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure

farmer holding tablet

Today we are talking with Dan and Darren about how to manage what you measure when it comes to your farm operation. Topics covered include ever changing complexities in the field, monitoring your return to land and management, and how to simplify your data to understand it better.

About Darren: CEO and President of Premier Crop. Fehr joined Premier Crop in 2018 and has successfully led the company in significant growth over the last two years. His passion for mentoring, leading and growing the business will be instrumental in the future of Premier Crop.

About Dan: Founder and current VP of Technical Services. Since founding PCS in 1999, Dan has witnessed many changes and transitions in the ag data industry.

If you are enjoying the show, tweet us using #PremierPodcast.

DARREN FEHR:  We come across a lot of people who have a very small or narrow group of metrics that they’re measuring, and, consequently, the question that comes back to us often is: how do I improve my performance? So, let’s start here, Dan. Defining success is a very important first step. How has the definition of success evolved over time with the farmers that you have worked with?

DAN FRIEBERG: In general, growers get that, in order to drive higher profitability, they need to drive higher yields. So, they understand that higher yields are key, and the reason that’s the case is because row-crop farming is a high fixed-cost business. If you think about before you plant a crop, most of your machinery investment is locked in. The fuel and the labor to actually make passes across the field is variable. Obviously, land cost, whether you own it or rent it, is, by far, the biggest fixed cost. There’s a lot of other costs: family living, health insurance and all those things.

Whether you produce 100-bushel corn, or 200-bushel corn, or 50-bushel wheat, or 80-bushel wheat, it doesn’t matter. You still have a bunch of fixed costs. Producing more bushels is the only way to drive your cost down. So, yield has become the surrogate for profitability, but we know better. We know that all yield isn’t created equal. It’s really not about yield. It’s about how efficiently we produce yield and how many dollars do we return to land and management.

DARREN FEHR: We started talking about this topic, I don’t know, 18 months ago, 24 months ago. Now, economics is a really big part of the conversation. When people think about how they drive success, what are some of the big barriers to actually uncovering this idea that I know what my profitability is, or my return on investment? This ROI thing gets thrown around really easily, but this isn’t easy to get to. What advice do you have for farmers to really be proactive in getting to understand how much they get back for every dollar they spend?

DAN FRIEBERG: It is really complex. I had a friend, a professor at Iowa State, who said real-world agronomy isn’t rocket science. It’s way more complex than rocket science. His point is we put somebody on the moon with what wouldn’t be the equivalent of a PC now, or a laptop now. He’s basically saying that real-world agronomy is just super complex because it’s this interaction of all these different biological factors, including the weather and soils and fertility and seeds and genetics. If you appreciate that agronomy is incredibly complex, and you add economics to that, then everything agronomic is economic.

The reason we make the agronomic decisions we do is because we get that there’s an economic impact to them. When you add all those pieces together, there are lots of complexity to deal with. What we argue is that agronomic-economic complexity is very spatial, meaning it’s changing within fields. There are parts of fields that are just begging to be managed at a higher level. And there are parts of fields that are sending signals, like, you just need to quit wasting money here. You need to change to what is successful in each part of the field.

DARREN FEHR: Dan, as the industry’s evolved, and we’ve got this many billions of dollars of venture capital funding come in towards a variety of different ag tech startups, we have this division happening. We have precision ag that’s more agronomy focused, and we have farm management information systems, which is arguably more economic focused, maybe less agronomic and more economic. Why is there this division happening, where people are having to choose: am I going to focus on subfield agronomy? Or am I going to focus on field-level economics?

DAN FRIEBERG: Of course, our answer is you don’t have to choose. That’s what we’re about. We are all about combining those pieces together. Our solution is not one or the other. It’s both.

With Premier, this is 22 years, maybe 23 crop seasons. I’m convinced that the reason every grower doesn’t do what we do — and this is not just us, this is not just Premier — is the precision. If you put every company that has any kind of a precision ag offering, and that includes a lot of major companies, like really big companies, there’s a whole bunch of offerings. But the reason every grower doesn’t do what we do is we haven’t shown, year after year, that it pays. It’s almost that simple. If we show growers that it pays every year, they’ll do it. There’s always an adoption curve, but, eventually, everybody gets on the bus because it’s just a matter of proving that it pays.

That’s why, for us, this push to tie economics to agronomics is such a big deal. That’s what we’re doing year over year. We’re proving that it pays. If we advocate or advise the grower to spend more money in the best part of the field, at the end of the year, it’s not a “trust me” it works. We’re providing the dollars-and-cents analysis to show that they got a higher return. So, to your ROI message, that’s exactly what we’re doing. A lot of times, they’re spending 30 to 50 dollars an acre more on inputs in the best part of the field, but we’re generating an additional 80-dollar return to land and management beyond that input spend.

yieldefficiencygrowervsgroup

DARREN FEHR: You’re saying that there’s that much money left on the table at the end of the day. Once people have an accurate view of precision economics at the subfield level, there is that much money left on the table?

DAN FRIEBERG: There is. The more we get people excited about doing this, the more we’re going to be able to stretch those numbers even higher. There is no doubt we need to continue to push higher yields. The times right now demand that you scrutinize every dollar you spend to get the higher return. We used to have a slump in commodity prices. It begs that we just have to be keen on how we spend every input and every input dollar to get higher returns.

DARREN FEHR: So, in this environment, what we’re facing, with a significant cash issue at the farm gate, this isn’t about cutting costs. This is about managing costs, so that every dollar we spend stretches as far as possible.

DAN FRIEBERG: You may cut costs in some parts of some fields. It would be a false promise to suggest that you’re not going to spend whatever you save, that you’re not going to spend extra in the best part of the field. The point is we have the ability to prove and to deliver a report card on every field that says it paid. It paid better than if we flat-rated it and pretended it was all the same.

breakevencostperbushel

DARREN FEHR: So, we started off with how you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Dan, what are the metrics? What should farmers be measuring?

DAN FRIEBERG: Everything. That’s what makes it so complex. We talked about 400 layers of data at a subfield level, and people just think that we’re crazy stupid for handling the complexity of all those data layers, but that’s reality. So, the idea is it’s not one thing that matters. It’s the combination of a whole bunch of things that matter, and it changes. It changes within fields, so what matters is different within different parts of the field.

Darren, everybody in the United States can bring in digitized soils. Digitized soils means we get soil type and texture and slope and drainage class and things like that. You can bring in soils layers, which is a great starting place. In our case, we have a lot of spatial soil sampling, meaning zone or grid sampled. Instead of just doing one sample that represents the entire field, you’re capturing differences, which means you’re capturing differences in organic matter and pH and fertility. There could be a couple dozen layers captured that way.

We capture as-applied fertility. That’s more complex than people think because there’s a lot of growers that would put nitrogen on five different ways. There would be some with the phosphorus, some weed and feed, some primary N goes on or side dress or manure or starter. We capture rate, source and cost, so those are all sortable data layers that can be analyzed. We get probably 15 layers off the planting file: its population, density, seeds and things like hybrid and variety. There are hundreds of layers that aren’t necessarily captured on a monitor that really matter.

Manure would be an example. There are a lot of manure applications that really have a huge impact, both agronomically and economically. There’s a lot of input capturing the real cost associated with all this, too. It’s just a lot of detail, but that’s what we do because we think that’s what’s most meaningful.

DAN FRIEBERG: Darren, you said that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. That was a Peter Drucker quote. I would recognize the name, but the younger generation doesn’t even recognize Peter Drucker’s name. He’s a management guru, but people have added on to that Drucker statement. One of the add-ons to the Drucker statement is: things you measure tend to improve. So, if you don’t measure it, does it have any chance of improving? It just really goes to being intentional and having a goal. That’s what we do with growers when we’re interacting with growers.

Every year, there’s a goal-setting discussion about: how are we going to measure success? With some growers, they want to drive yield efficiency. They want to drive higher returns, so that they can hire some help and their family life can improve. They can have more time with the family because they’re able to afford hired labor. Others want to expand their operation. Everybody’s got slightly different goals, but, usually, it comes down to: they’re business people, and they want to generate more returns or hold their operating capital in check.

DARREN FEHR: The reality is the definition of success is different for everyone, but the other reality is that profitability matters. In having a business, whether it’s farming or anything else, everybody’s trying to make some money. Measuring the right parts to drive operational growth and profitable growth is really important. So, we’re going to talk about trying to stay ahead of the game, trying to plan before you buy, as opposed to buying and then trying to plan where you place the input. Stay tuned for that. Dan, thanks a lot for being with us this morning and talking about how you can’t manage what you don’t measure and driving higher yield efficiency.

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007: Leveraging Big Data

big data

Today we are talking with Dan and Darren about big data. Topics covered include how big data can influence the ag industry and data you have access to in your existing equipment. We will also talk about the benefits of not only big data, but big local data.

About Darren: CEO and President of Premier Crop. Fehr joined Premier Crop in 2018 and has successfully led the company in significant growth over the last two years. His passion for mentoring, leading and growing the business will be instrumental in the future of Premier Crop.

About Dan: Founder and current VP of Technical Services. Since founding PCS in 1999, Dan has witnessed many changes and transitions in the ag data industry.

If you are enjoying the show, tweet us using #PremierPodcast.

DARREN FEHR: In today’s session, we’re going to talk about big data. I should start off with the definition of big data, so our listeners can get connected to what we’re talking about. It’s a phrase that has integrated this world of technology across industries. It’s about capturing relevant data from a huge number of sources, collecting it today and translating it into something that people can use, into actionable insights to solve problems at scale and at speed. In this world of ag, we have billions of dollars of venture capital funding pouring into agriculture through technology builds. Big data has been at the center of a lot of that. How do you see this being advantageous for agriculture?

DAN FRIEBERG: Darren, I think it depends on the lens that you’re looking through. If you’re a manufacturer, there’s probably a different set of values from big data than if you’re a grower. So, it probably depends on your goal. What do you want to accomplish with the data? Obviously, big data is enabled by computing power. We just have a lot more capacity because of server farms and cloud computing. We just have way more capacity, which lets us collect more and then lets us crunch through more data.

In ag, it’s relatively recent. Before yield monitors, many decisions in ag were based on small data, which was a lot of replicated trials. We’re talking tiny. A replication in a trial might be 25-feet-long, replicated three times. That becomes an observation. So now, with yield monitors and all the other devices, we’re able to collect data at such high resolution. In a hundred-acre field, we would divide that field into 4,000 unique observations that are geo-referenced. We tie that with a lat, long, yield value and hundreds of layers of data underneath that.

DARREN FEHR: I want to get back to our big data collecting capabilities. There’s a ton of data being collected in ag today, from a lot of different sources, and a whole bunch of it is public. It seems like there’s a lot of these newer companies coming out, trying to take advantage of public data and the complexity of sourcing it and putting it together into some usable format. What are the benefits for the farmer, in terms of seeing all of the publicly available data and, specifically, for their farm and how it helps them make decisions?

DAN FRIEBERG: With a lot of the public data, for us, it’s really course. We would call it really course, meaning it’s not drilled down to a level where I think it’s all that helpful. But if you’re a company, and you’re selling an analytics package to a grain trading company, the truth is you don’t need it refined. That coarseness is fine because you’re trying to understand global yield trends and how it will move the supply chain. So, to me, a lot of the public sources aren’t as valuable to a grower as they are to other stakeholders.

DARREN FEHR: Let’s talk about some of the myths out there on big data, and this is one thing we hear a lot. We hear the words “weather modeling,” but what we’re talking about is predicting the future. It might be future weather or future performance. Tell me about big data in predicting the future. My understanding is it’s always been based on historical data, and if the historical data isn’t validated and verified at a high enough resolution, how do we use all of this to predict or model future production trends?

DAN FRIEBERG: All models are based on assumptions. They’re based on data, but there’s some assumption built into them. It’s about understanding specific geographies within fields, how they’re similar to other similar geographies in other fields. It’s almost like the more data you get, the more it lets you break it apart into more meaningful insights. The power of what we have in ag is that you have different growing environments every year. As we grow as a company, we have different growing environments within the same year. So, Nebraska or Minnesota can have a dramatically different growing environment than Indiana and Ohio. For example, you could see how a hybrid or variety performs in the same year in dramatically different growing environments, just because you’re seeing it across these big geographies.

DARREN FEHR: But that’s highly dependent on believing in this idea that agronomy is local, that agronomy and geography have a really close relationship with each other. There’s this whole idea of big data and aggregating it across multiple different agronomic environments. How do we give it enough credibility that people can make decisions from it?

DAN FRIEBERG: Over the years, as we’re building as a company, the ability to aggregate data geographically is a big deal. The ultimate power of all this is subfield because that’s where you drive change. If you’re actually going to change and make improvements, it’s going to be subfield. Everybody wants to see beyond their own operation. They want to see agronomic practices or agronomic trends or rates. When somebody comes in, they want to see the biggest data set possible, which means bigger geography. The bigger you get and the more data you get, then, all of a sudden, they’re like, “I really don’t care about seeing the big data. I want to see the local data.” Local is king in ag. The bigger, richer data set you can get locally, the more powerful it is because there are more things that are relevant and stay the same.

We almost went through a decade where it seemed like the whole seed industry on corn was going to a lot of fixed-year numbers. The only way you could drive yield was to drive population. In the data, no matter what size of database, there was this trend. We were marching up 400 or 500 seeds per acre for a decade because that’s what it took in order to drive yields.

Now, we’ve gone through almost a decade where it seems like there’s a lot of flex in numbers, so we’re producing much higher yields at lower populations. But, when we were going through that match up in population, all of a sudden people started looking at row width. We had this phenomenon where everybody was chasing 20-inch corn and even narrower corn. 39,000 in a 30-inch row is too close. The plants are on top of each other, and need to space them out more.

In the data, 20-inch corn was a South Dakota and southern Minnesota phenomenon. That’s where we were seeing the most 20-inch corn. We had people outside of that area that wanted to drill down. They wanted to see data outside of their area because they were trying to make a decision about switching to a narrower row of corn, as a way to space out the plants as they continue to drive the population.

DARREN FEHR: With this idea of resolution, first of all, it’s data resolution. You mentioned the word subfield. When I say high resolution, I’m meaning subfield. This goes beyond the field boundary, and we’re looking at different parts of different areas inside of every field. So, high-resolution data means subfield.

We walk around with our cell phones, and they’re not phones anymore. They’re cameras, obviously. They’re used for filming and capturing videos. I always marvel at the fact that, when you capture a digital photo today, at a very high resolution, you can blow it up and make it as big as you want, and it’s still clear. I think about big data that way. If we capture and collect it at this subfield or high-resolution level, we can blow it up, and we can use it so that the insights are still clear.

DAN FRIEBERG: No matter how much you blow it up. Versus the other way. If you don’t capture that kind of detail, then, as you blow it up, it distorts.

DARREN FEHR: Myths about big data: if you haven’t got involved in big data now, you’re probably too late.

DAN FRIEBERG: No, not at all. A lot of growers are sitting on data, and nobody’s helped them use it. Yield data is, by far, the most. There are growers who quit caring about yield data because they haven’t used it. One of our successes is that, as we get engaged, we grab that historic yield data and try to use it to capture the variability that exists within fields. With a lot of growers, their data is in different buckets, and it’s not put together in a way that they really can capture it. A 3,000-acre grower in our system would create 120,000 observations. We would see yield by all these hundreds of layers of data, 120,000 times, just on a 3,000-acre operation. You can go from zero to big data really quick in farming. Anytime you get started is great, and you can start creating value right away.

DARREN FEHR: Another Big Data Myth: Data is messy, it’s complex, it can be confusing and it can be deceiving. Let’s talk about this idea where I see relationships between the data, which you have always talked to us about in terms of correlations, but not always do those relationships cause an effect. Talk about causation and correlation.

DAN FRIEBERG: We’re capturing data off the planter, as it goes across the field, we’ve been able to calculate planting speed. One of the very early signs was we had a report that showed the faster they planted the corn, the better and higher the yield. That’s an example where faster planting speed was correlated to higher yields. Parts of the field worked up rough. They slowed down because they were trying to maintain seed-soil contact. As they went into those areas that worked up rough, they slowed the tractor down and slowed the planter down. In the part of the field that worked up great, they planted at normal speed or higher speed and, that was where the higher yields were. The rougher areas worked up rough, so the real correlation was to field conditions of planting, but it showed up as planting speeds.

So, it was an example where you can have correlation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean causation.

DARREN FEHR: Let’s talk about nitrogen and data. Nitrogen seems to be a very popular topic, and there’s always this idea that one pound of nitrogen is enough to produce a bushel of corn. Talk to me about this generalization of data.

DAN FRIEBERG: For decades, we lived in a world of this idea of 1.2 pounds of nitrogen per bushel produced minus credits for legume. If you’re on a corn-soybean rotation with a 250-bushel yield goal, or 200, 1.2 would be 240 minus 40 or 50 pounds of credit for a soybean crop per head. That would put you back at about 200 pounds of N. So, that 1.2 less credits led people to this notion of about a pound of nitrogen per bushel produced. Certainly, what our experience has been is that’s no longer at all close. Nitrogen use in the data, Darren, tends to fluctuate a lot with the price of commodities. I hate to say it, but when we went through a seven-dollar corn cycle, you could see it in N rates.

Now that things are tight again, we’re back to trying to squeeze every bushel out of each pound of nutrient that we apply. In times like this, we’ve seen people produce plus 200-bushel yields on 0.6 pounds of N per bushel. That’s really scrutinizing your nitrogen and it’s using variable rate to do nitrogen. Growers want to make sure that nitrogen is not what’s yield limiting. They tend to be aggressive a lot of times, and so we try to help them put that in perspective. Actually, that idea of a pound of N per bushel may not be that far off, except that there are zones within a field where 0.7 pounds of N per bushel might be ideal. And there are other parts of the field where it might take more than a pound of N per bushel produced.

We believe very much that nitrogen response is very spatial. It changes. The ideal rate changes within each field. Of all the nutrients, nitrogen would probably be the one that is the most uniformly applied. A lot of growers put the same rate on every acre, and so we see it as an opportunity for dramatic improvement.

DARREN FEHR: We are somewhat biased because we’ve been promoting variable rate technology for two decades. Seed population and planting population aren’t that much different. We’re biased because we see the incredible amount of dollars left on the table. Planting population, specifically in soybeans, have just taken a dramatic turn. Talk about that.

DAN FRIEBERG: Soybeans have just been the opposite strategy of corn. We keep backing off the population in the best parts of fields and seem to actually continue to increase yield. We probably hold our populations a little higher in the worst part of the field, just to be more aggressive in those defensive areas. There’s not as many dollars in play from a seed investment perspective. We’re still seeing dramatic positive results from reducing populations in almost any kind of a growing environment. Last year, Darren, was the exception because we had so much late-planted. Because of 2019 being such a wet spring, we pushed soybean planting so late that it was probably the outlier in the data.

DARREN FEHR: What are some examples? You’ve done a lot of work on the economics of variable rate. What are some examples that you can think of that come to mind about just the shock and awe of how much money is left out there when we deploy flat-rate solutions?

DAN FRIEBERG: We have the big data analytics, and we have all kinds of big data analytic tools, but now we’re able to do replicated trials in mass, in volume, in growers’ fields at the speed of farming. The equipment is executing the trial, so it’s preprogrammed. The trial is preprogrammed into the prescription, so we’re laying down replicated trials. We’re ramping up really fast, and then we can aggregate those trial results to like-agronomic environments.

I’m a huge advocate of variable rate everything, but now we’re able to put the dollars and cents to it through replicated trials. And it really surprises me. We’re talking about 100-dollar-an-acre net swings for as little as a 4,000-seed difference. Just dramatic swings. So, if you push over the top, if you push populations too far, not only do you spend more on seed, but you can drive yields down really fast. Getting the rate right in every part of every field is big time dollars. On nitrogen, it could be 50-dollar, 60-dollar-an-acre swings.

In this world that we’re in right now, when you talk about 50 to 100-dollars-an-acre differences, that’s it. We’re going into struggling to break even. We’re going to need some combination of crop insurance. Growers absolutely hate it, but we’re in a situation where, just to break even, we’re going to need some government program. There are all these political debates on how much to subsidize what part of the sector, but in the ag economy, it’s really difficult to make money, to break even. So, 50 to 100-dollar-an-acre swings, just on how you manage inputs, is real, and it’s big dollars.

DAN FRIEBERG: Big data needs local context. The best big data is local big data. Sometimes I think the best thing about big data is providing the questions. Big data lets you see relationships that you couldn’t see before. It sets you up to do a trial to answer the question. So, big data can be the source of what to look for next. Instead of providing answers, it provides the next question, which is what we’re all about: this continuous improvement.

We’re all about: what can we do to change? What can we help you change to drive continuous improvement? Sometimes big data provides answers that you can take to the bank, but a lot of times it provides insights that lead to questions that lead to: let me do a trial. I think I see something, and now I want to prove it.

DARREN FEHR: That’s an incredible insight. Dan, it’s always a pleasure. It’s always fun to hear your thoughts, your experiences. Thanks for sharing your ideas and thoughts on big data.

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006: Innovating During a Crisis

innovation

 

Today we are talking about innovating during a crisis and how efficiency in agriculture is key. Topics covered include how this pandemic will be remembered, keeping an eye on your bottom line during a tight economy, and how farming is like golf.

About Darren: CEO and President of Premier Crop. Fehr joined Premier Crop in 2018 and has successfully led the company in significant growth over the last two years. His passion for mentoring, leading and growing the business will be instrumental in the future of Premier Crop.

About Dan: Founder and current VP of Technical Services. Since founding PCS in 1998, Dan has witnessed many changes and transitions in the ag data industry.  Data analytics will show how efficiently farmers produce. It’s about getting serious about producing efficiency in agriculture and it’s all in the details.

If you are enjoying the show, tweet us using #PremierPodcast.

All Change is Preceded by a Crisis

DARREN FEHR: Hey Dan, our topic of the day is all change is preceded by a crisis. It’s sad to say, but it’s funny how innovation takes wild turns and only at the advent of a crisis. Tell me a little bit about what you think this COVID-19 business is going to do, in terms of transforming the way we farm.

DAN FRIEBERG: Well, for me personally, it’s reminiscent of the 1980s. I started my career in the 80s and plunged right into the farm crisis. And so, it feels a lot like that, Darren. I feel like credit is going to tighten people. Growers are having trouble getting operating lines extended to cover everything they need. So, it just feels like that 80s crisis. There are differences. We have cheap interest. At that time, we had really high interest and high inflation, and there were a lot of other dynamics. But when your operating budget goes upside down, when it gets negative, it causes dramatic change. I remember the 80s well, and I remember having to just scrutinize everything we did differently. I mean, just through that lens of how hard it was to make money.

DARREN FEHR: Do you think a farm gaped cash flow is the biggest issue? What do you think are some of the biggest issues that farmers are facing that are really going to reflect on their ability to either grow, expand or need to get out?

DAN FRIEBERG: There are about three or four big ones for me. One is just keeping your operating capital intact. It’s just so easy to lose operating capital, and it’s different. Nobody wants to touch your land equity or any of that. I mean, there’s a lot of equity, but it’s just about whether you have operating capital and having your operating capital intact while a lot of people expand. To me, there’s this real false narrative, and it just repeats itself over and over again that farmers are great producers and bad marketers. They may be bad marketers, but the idea that everybody’s a great producer is not true, either.

We see it in data. That’s what we do. We do a lot of data analytics, and we see huge swings in how efficiently people produce. So, to me, when you talk about innovation in the middle of a crisis, it’s about getting serious about producing efficiently. And producing efficiently is all in the details.

DARREN FEHR: It’s interesting that you talk about efficiency and production because we talk to so many farmers who say, ‘All I want to do is farm. Leave me out of the details or the administration because the data thing is complex.’ How do we work through this idea that I want to farm because of what I enjoy, but how do I do this efficiently? What does that mean?

DAN FRIEBERG: I totally understand exactly what they’re saying. Our experience as a company is that growers don’t want to do all the data work. Growers want us and their advisor to do the data work. They want to consume the output of their data analytics, and for us to provide analytics that are meaningful and advise. Then, the following step is to take action on it. So, it’s just that constant improvement cycle that we go through. They want to consume data analytics. I mean, all the detail that goes into having great data, that’s not what excites them. They’d much rather farm than they would be in the details of the data.

The Importance of Planning

DARREN FEHR: Do you think that there’s enough emphasis placed on pre-production planning? We talk a lot about the ag technology that’s been invested in in-season crop monitoring. A lot of the seasonal, cyclical buying lends itself to think that there isn’t this early season, robust planning process. What do you think is going to change here after we get through this crisis that we’re facing, in terms of this planning piece?

DAN FRIEBERG: There are exceptions to this. One of the exceptions is high value crops and irrigation. With high value crops and irrigation, you can turn on a dime. You can adjust everything because you can treat the plant and feed it like it’s on an IV. But most of North American production is rain-fed, so planning is everything. Just having detailed plans and not missing any of the details in that planning process is everything.

One of the quotes that’s battered around a lot is, “you don’t want the plant to have a bad day.” If the plant tells you it’s suffering, it’s too late. It’s like when people show these images of denitrification, and it’s like, ‘Okay, you’ve already lost yield. You’re right, you can correct that.’ But the whole goal is to never get to that place. And that’s the reason you do plans. The reason you spend that time making sure you got the plan right is so that you’re avoiding those train wrecks. You still have to monitor the crop. You still have to respond because there are things that happen. But even with plant diseases, you can plan for those. You can plan for insects. A lot of the decisions are all pre-budgeted.

When I talk about managing operating capital, there’s a lot of input dollars at stake and how you spend those input dollars is what I’m talking about with how efficient you farm. These really tight, upside-down economics that we’re in just screams that you have to stretch every input dollar absolutely as far as you can. You just can’t be wasteful. It’s all about investing every dollar at the right place at the right time to get the best return.

DARREN FEHR: You make a really good point here. By the time you see the problem, it’s probably too late. It’s probably because you missed some of the symptoms. Now, we spend a lot of time talking about what happens below ground, and we do a lot with nutrition and soil fertility. Is this an area that we can get better at or we can help people with more, in terms of the planning piece and planning to deliver, over time, higher organic matter or more efficient nitrogen use? What’s your take on our ability to help production efficiency below ground?

DAN FRIEBERG: We will look back a decade from now and think how crude we were in 2020. We will look back and think how crude we are. So, we’re going to continue to make dramatic advancements. For us, it’s all about how we characterize like-agronomic environments and how we treat them differently. We believe that the ideal rate of everything changes within geographies within fields. So, we are going to get better and better at all of this.

Darren, so much of crop production and so much of the science behind crop production is a little bit siloed. And in the real world, it’s all integrated. So, if you even think of it in university settings, we have etymologists and we have plant pathologists and we have nutrition specialists. And even in nutrition, they tend to be specialized by nutrients. But in the real world, it’s all those things colliding together. And so there are all these interactions, and that’s what makes real-world agronomy so complex. There’s just lots of room for improvement, and that’s what we’re going to do.

You share a common background that I have. We both grew up in the livestock industry, and sometimes it’s just shocking how much the livestock industry is so data-driven. People don’t realize just how data-driven it is. You come from the dairy industry, which was decades ahead of everybody else, even the rest of the livestock industry. The dairy industry was data-driven decades ago. And in many ways, with crop production, because of GPS and the ability to spatially measure yield in responses to different treatments, we’re playing catch up right now.

DARREN FEHR: So, does that mean that maybe the livestock business went through this kind of a crisis way sooner in its life cycle? I don’t even remember this digital transformation and the need of data in livestock, but it feels like we’re going to be very intentional here in transitioning to more of a data-driven industry in crop production. Is that the case, or is this just going to feel very normal to people who are farming, progressing and growing?

DAN FRIEBERG: Hopefully, it feels more normal. A little bit of what’s happened in livestock is it’s obviously become really specialized and consolidated into fewer hands and all that. But a lot of times, when we get in front of growers who are also actively involved and at risk in the livestock industry, they will draw the parallel. They’ll say, ‘Oh my goodness.’ It’s almost like a wake up call. And they’re not talking about just feed efficiency and rate of gain. They’re talking about knowing the economic numbers associated with that unit of production.

When we show them what we’re doing, they’re like, ‘Oh my goodness, you’re talking about treating my crop land the same as I treat a pen of pigs or a pen of cattle.’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re doing.’ We’re tying all the pieces together, not just production efficiency or nutrient efficiency. We’re tying economics to every part of the field.

DARREN FEHR: Isn’t it the same, like in sports, where you want to improve performance? There are certain metrics that you’re going to do to improve your end result. My golf game is really crappy, and I measured the end score, but there’s a ton of other metrics that I could measure if I wanted to get a lot better in certain parts of my game. And isn’t farming sort of similar to that?

DAN FRIEBERG: It is. It really is. I obviously work too much and don’t golf enough, like you. There’s a saying in golf, at least among us really crude players, “you drive for show and putt for dough.”

DARREN FEHR: I have no dough because my putting is horrible.

DAN FRIEBERG: But sometimes, in crop production, high yields have become the show. They become what you do for show. And to me, it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s part of the game.’ I mean, yields are really key, but it’s not just about yields. It’s about return to land and management. How do I make more money? The metrics that we use to measure have got to have an economic component because not all yield is created equal. You can throw the kitchen sink at something and have high yields, but that doesn’t mean you’re improving your operating capital.

DARREN FEHR: You’ve got to get down the fairway, and if you can’t chip and putt, you’re probably not going to score real well. To all of our listeners here, this is sort of the final word: if the seeds of innovation are born out of a crisis, Dan, what should farmers be thinking about today?

DAN FRIEBERG: Just focus on how to be more efficient, how to produce more efficiently. Keep scrutinizing. Darren, the other thing is they’re managing multi-million-dollar operations. I feel for them because they’re constantly learning a new skill set. As a manager, you’re managing more complexity and more people. They’re all turned into financial managers. In some cases, it’s just finding somebody to help you manage the details. In our case, that’s our value proposition: let us help you manage all the agronomic and economic details associated with crop production.

DARREN FEHR: Awesome. It sets us up for the next podcast that we’re going to have, talking about big data. And we can talk about COVID-19 and how the delivery of this exceptional data has helped us think through this crisis and how agriculture uses big data. So, thanks Dan for joining me today on our podcast. Stay tuned next week for our podcast on big data.

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005: Verifying In-Season Applications and Profits

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Today we are talking about verifying in-season applications and profits in your field. We are joined by Pat Mai, Account Manager for Ag Partners and his grower Shaun Wolf. This is Shaun’s first year using a precision ag program. He shares insight he has learned from the past few months and his experience leveraging data in his operation.

About Pat: Account Manager for InSiteCDM. He assists the western territory of Ag Partners. Focusing mainly on InSiteCDM management, setting up management zones, and making recommendations on his findings based on data from growers.

About Shaun: A grower that farms in Northwest Iowa entering his first year using a precision ag approach to data in his fields.

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PAT MAI: I’m in charge of the western territory of Ag Partners. I mainly do CDM management where I help set up zones, and make recommendations for seed and fertility according to those zones. I query data for guys in the program who have questions.

SHAUN WOLF: I’m Shaun Wolf and I farm in Northwest Iowa. Last fall, Pat approached me to sign up for the program, and we signed up. It’s the first year and, so far, it’s going well.

What are some of the benefits of verifying in-season applications?

SHAUN WOLF: Certain products and practices perform better than others. If you have any crop injury, you have everything documented in your records. It helps me remember, all season long, what has been done come fall. Everything you’ve done all season long is documented and easy to access.

PAT MAI: What do you think of the use of precision ag as a service?

SHAUN WOLF: It helps me determine how much I can put into my inputs while getting the best return on investments. They have a program to take all your production data in one area and tailor a program suited for you, instead of taking broad data from around the country and trying to apply it to your farm.

PAT MAI: You get some local answers instead of out-of-state stuff. Well, Shaun, how does farm analytics help you identify problem areas and improve them?

SHAUN WOLF: They help break down your operation farm by farm. They help find problem areas and resolve issues. If you have consistent low-yielding areas, they help determine the cause and hopefully improve it. If you can’t improve it, you can put that area in a CRP or lower your populations to get your best return on it.

PAT MAI: Or you can take your above average ground and push that harder to improve that. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your worst ground. We’ve been doing some ELBs (Enhanced Learning Blocks) and running some NexGen recommendations for nitrogen. Where do you think that can take us in the future?

SHAUN WOLF: You can measure how hard to push populations in your A zones and how far you can drop your population in your poor zones before you see a yield reduction. It’s just trying to maximize each acre and get the full potential out of it.

PAT MAI: With these new hybrids coming out, we can learn where the right population is for each zone, with your ELBs.

SHAUN WOLF: Right. And you can place certain hybrids in different areas to perform better.

How do you think agricultural technology can make your farm more efficient?

SHAUN WOLF: It reduces the chance of skips in the field. Pat showed me he hasn’t skipped when he’s planting. There’s less time spent in the field, which saves fuel and labor fatigue. You can produce more while using less inputs and improving your yields. It just all around makes your operation more efficient.

PAT MAI: What have you learned from precision ag and how has it benefited your farm profit?

SHAUN WOLF: This is the first year for the InSite program. It’s looking to increase yields by pushing populations in your better areas and border populations to get the best return on investment there. You can save a little seed in the poor areas, increase your fertilizer in your better areas and just learn how to maximize.

How do you work with your advisor to develop a crop plan?

SHAUN WOLF: First, we give all our yield history to create zones. And then from that, we create our planting population maps, rate maps and fertilizer recs.

PAT MAI: Yeah, I took your zones, made them and brought them back to you. Then you tweaked them and told me if I was right or wrong.

SHAUN WOLF: Well, as the farmer, we know our ground better than, let’s say, Pat. He just comes and sees what’s on the computer. But we’re out farming the ground every year. So we know the farms. We might have a better understanding of what’s doing what, if it’s a wet spot or a sandy area.

PAT MAI: It could have been a hybrid failure one year or green snap.

SHAUN WOLF: Yep. So, yield data doesn’t necessarily tell you everything. It gives you a broad idea, but it may not be accurate every year, if you had an issue. And that’s what helps. Instead of just saying, here’s your recs and good luck, we can work with them and tailor it to what you think is best.

PAT MAI: We don’t have to waste one year of trial and error learning the ground. Since his grandpa’s been farming and his dad and now him, there are 70 years of knowledge there. Let’s utilize it.

SHAUN WOLF: When Pat and Clint approached me, it just made sense. We’ve had all this yield data compiled and nowhere to go with it. With data, if you don’t have a place to utilize it and put it to work for you, there’s really no point in having it. Doing a soil test, we’re operating our fertilizer, but we haven’t yet railroaded too much with our planting. But I think this will really take it to the next level. Especially with this farm economy the way it is, you need to be as efficient as possible. Then also with our cost tracking, worked out farm by farm, you get a better understanding of where you’re at for break-even to get the best return on investment. You can’t afford to be losing money where things are now.

PAT MAI: We ran some cost tracking modeling on a couple of his fields to see if it was beneficial to keep the rotation or switch to a corn-on-corn rotation. Just with the pricing and marketing of it, that’s an added benefit to help make those decisions before you actually get it into the ground.

SHAUN WOLF: At the time, it probably was wise to do corn-on-corn. But then, obviously, this COVID-19 came and things changed again. It’s an ever-changing market. I do all our own spraying, so when I’m spraying herbicide and fungicide, it’s all documented: day, time, temperature, wind speed. However, I really didn’t do anything with it. Obviously, the fungicide and herbicide will probably overlay with our harvest maps and see if there was a response. If we didn’t leave some strips, maybe we compare herbicide-wise. We have it documented if there’s a crop injury or if things didn’t perform like they were supposed to. With your alternative things like fungicide, you definitely want to see if that’s paying for itself.

Every season’s going to be different but, historically, the InSite CDM program is showing every year that it pays for itself. So, with that knowledge, it makes you more willing to spend the money to put a fungicide on. You wonder, should I do it or shouldn’t do it? But then you pass it up and lose out on yield.

PAT MAI: And you’re trying other types of fungicides or other trials with other companies that were recording. We can do validation reports on it to help verify that it’s working. If you’re splitting a 40-acre field and doing half and half, or doing certain seed treatments or graphite on seed, it helps keep that all straight and documented to actually see if it’s working and paying.

SHAUN WOLF: Yeah, I’m doing a Compass Minerals trial. They have a seed treatment. It’s basically a talc you throw in the planter. Nothing real crazy about it. You just treat it as you normally would for your talc or graphite. And then, in-season with the herbicide pass, there’s a foliar treatment to put in. And then, late-season, we put a fungicide on the corn ground. Another foliar treatment is put on, and it’s all on the same acres.

PAT MAI: We’re running it through CDM, and we can kick out a validate report. And it’ll break it up by soil type, fertility levels, which hybrid it is. I mean, it gives you a base of data underneath to see if it is that stuff or what’s actually helping it. With the plan, we’ll just watch what we did this year, what we learned from it and if we like it.

Going forward, we really won’t know a whole lot until harvest rolls around and we see the results, or the answers, of what we did this year before we can go ahead and make a plan for 2021. We’ll look at the group data and see if what happened on his farms is an anomaly. If everyone had just as good of luck with certain hybrids, speed the process up instead of planting the same hybrid for three years and seeing if that’s the right one for us. So, we can look at everybody else’s data, also, and either not plant it again or try it again. To make a plan, we have to see how this year goes first.

SHAUN WOLF: You basically looked at your yields, and it helped determine if, next year, we’re not going to plant this hybrid because it didn’t do well. Or, next year, we’re going to plant more of this hybrid because it did do better. But, as far as changing our program, it really didn’t do anything because it couldn’t put the data in and change it for you. So that’s why we were really more interested in signing up, to just have one place to put your data and get some results and be able to change things.

I’ve known Pat for a long time, and he already knows the history of our farm. So, that helped a lot. Last fall, I wanted recs made and I think, within 24 hours, Pat had them to me. It was quick, with good answers. Pat’s always there, and if he doesn’t have the answer, he’ll try and find it. So, it’s been nice to have somebody to lean on and get the answers, instead of just guessing.

PAT MAI: You got to see a presentation of everybody’s data then, for 2019, which brought back a lot more questions for me and helped query a lot of data he was thinking about.

SHAUN WOLF: We’ve been backing off our bean populations, just from data we’ve seen, and it helped confirm that we’re doing the right thing. So, that gave us peace of mind that we’re doing the right thing there. It takes the guessing out of it. That’s why I like the program. It’s basically telling you what to do, instead of shooting from the hip. It takes the guessing out of it.

PAT MAI: It gives you more concrete evidence of why we’re making these decisions. It’s not just me pulling it out of the sky, thinking you should just try this. I can give him a good answer with data to prove it to him. And it helps him sleep at night, just knowing that there is something backing it, not just willy-nilly.

SHAUN WOLF: You feel a lot better having it and not worrying about it.

PAT MAI: Thank you for taking the time for this podcast. Are there any other closing remarks? We appreciate your business.

SHAUN WOLF: I appreciate you. If I have a question, you’re there with an answer. And as we go forward, we’ll rock this operation.

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Learn more about Variable Rate Farming.

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004: Protecting Crop Profits

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Today we are talking about the value of protecting crop profits during uncertain times. Listen as Rodney and Eric discuss variable rate seeding, managing your input costs, using learning blocks to better understand your fields, and other related topics.

About Eric: Eric farms row crops Southeast of Britt, IA. He was born and raised in Britt and started farming with his dad in, roughly, 1997. He has slowly taken over the farm operation and added to it over the years using ag data to make better decisions in his fields.

About Rodney: Rodney is with SciMax Solutions, helping growers use their data to make better decisions on their operation. He has been working with Eric for a number of years on his operation.

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RODNEY LEGLEITER: How does farm analytics help your farm become more cost efficient?

ERIC MARCHAND: When you break your farm down, you can see where the profit robbing issues are. You can try to correct them or combat them. Some examples would be using different hybrids, nitrogen rates, fertilizer responses, or variable rate planting in certain areas. SciMax compiles the data from other growers in the area, then helps find different practices that are working versus what isn’t working. You can not only see your farm operation, but see what others are doing anonymously. This way you can manage each acre slightly different to maximize your profitability on each acre.

RODNEY LEGLEITER: How do you manage input costs to protect crop profits?

ERIC MARCHAND: It’s about having the right population of the right hybrid on each acre in each area of the field, as well as optimizing your nitrogen rate, your micronutrients, and even your P and K rates. Going clear back to the basic as-planted map and overlaying that with your yield mapping, you can determine your crop profits by field, acre and hybrid.

RODNEY LEGLEITER: Talking about variable rate, you’ve been variable rate seeding for quite a few years. Tell us the timeline and history of how you’ve been using variable rate prescriptions and seeding.

ERIC MARCHAND: In 2013 I purchased hydraulic drives on my planter and knew I could variable rate. Since I had the technology available to me, I tried a little bit of corn in a field or two each year. I broadened that into trying a field of beans based on pH and adding four more corn acres. It went to having a prescription written for every acre of corn and beans that I plan to plant each year.

I believe variable rate really pays off in optimizing your population. I wouldn’t say you’re cutting back in the less productive acres. You are cutting back your population, but you’re optimizing your population more than just cutting it back to save seed. Cutting back saves the seed cost, but it also allows the best population on that acre to produce the best yield. Saving input cost, as well as increased yield for return, is a double-ended benefit.

RODNEY LEGLEITER: There’s a misconception that you’re going to cut your seeding costs drastically, but that’s really not the case when you’ve pretty much got the same average rate across the field.

ERIC MARCHAND: You’re right. If you decide the ballpark of what you would flat rate that field by seed, most of the time you’re within one bag. So you’re not cutting back seed. You’re taking it out of the less productive areas and putting it in the higher producing areas. You’re trying to be a little more offensive in the good ground. Meanwhile, you’re more conservative to optimize the situation in the less productive ground.

RODNEY LEGLEITER: Throughout the years you’ve tried the SciMax Nitrogen program with variable rate nitrogen and you’ve been able to reduce your rates by anywhere from 25 to 30 percent over those acres and still maintain, if not, increase yield. What are the different things you’ve tried with the SciMax Nitrogen program?

ERIC MARCHAND: Yes, definitely. With the variable rate single application or dual applications, you can cut your rates back. I used Learning Blocks® to test different rates to see if there was a yield drag where the nitrogen rates were cut.

I used learning blocks as a convincing agent, especially with variable rate nitrogen. Guys have thought if you pump more nitrogen out there, you’ll get more yield. Seeing data SciMax has with reducing nitrogen rates challenges the comfort zone of the ‘old-time-thinking.’ We wanted to see for ourselves. We put a learning block out that used my old nitrogen rate, and a higher rate. When we got our yield maps and lay over the nitrogen rate learning block, we saw little to no change. We even sometimes saw a negative response on the higher rate. It builds confidence to make the decision for the right rates next year. And it’s not only nitrogen, you can start analyzing nitrogen rates to planting population to micronutrients and fungicides.

Instead of doing strips where your ground varies across a field, do sections where you see if what you’re doing matters. You can start to ask the questions, ‘What if I went and did that? Would I have had the same results anyway? Did I just get a banner year and get a good yield out there? Or did I do the right thing by pushing the population or by cutting the population back?’ The Learning Block tells you changing if what you changed provided a result. In some instances, maybe changing this didn’t work. But it’s not a test plot from a hundred miles away. It’s your learning block right there in your own field.

RODNEY LEGLEITER: The farm economy is being impacted, more so in some areas than others. Tell me a little bit about your thought of the farm economy and what you’re seeing, how it’s affecting you and what keeps you up at night, as far as the current farming economy?

ERIC MARCHAND: In tough economic years, it’s even more important to manage your inputs and to maximize crop profits. Way too often, I hear people want to maximize yield and, obviously, the more bushels you have, the more you have to sell. But if they cost you too much to raise, you might not have increased your profitability by increasing yield. I’m proud to say I have a good partner in SciMax by managing input costs, maximizing profitability, and helping protect my crop profits.

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003: The Value of Precision Ag During Tight Economic Times

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Today we are talking about the value of precision ag and data during tough economic times. We are joined by Aaron Seifert, Business Development Manager and Dan Frieberg, Co-Founder of Premier Crop Systems.

Listen in as Aaron and Dan discuss the effects of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the agriculture industry, observations they are both seeing, and how growers will push through this difficult time.

If you are enjoying the show, tweet us using #PremierPodcast.

 

AARON SEIFERT: There is some additional uncertainty with COVID-19 in markets and things like that. Where does the value of precision ag come up in these types of times? Producers are probably making very difficult decisions. How does precision ag bring value today?

DAN FRIEBERG: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. So for us, it’s all about trying to use the data and the analytics to just constantly refine everything. As a company, I don’t think we’ve benefited like other companies did. Between grain storage and artificial drainage, there have been lots and lots of equipment upgrades. But I think we actually grow quicker and faster when the economics are really tight for the grower. When budgets get upside down, like they are now with the economic crisis, it’s hard to make money. It’s really hard to make money.

For young farmers, it’s hard to make money to grow. It’s hard to make money to hire the next person. And when you get into really tight economic times all of a sudden, then it’s like, ‘Okay, I need to do something different. I’ve got to find ways to squeeze more out of every dollar I invest. I just have to.’ So, that understanding of how hard it is to make money, it helps us because, hopefully, growers are looking for a way to do that, and that’s what we do every day. We help manage that totality of input investment, including field trips and all that. We help manage and advise, and it’s all in the name of driving higher yield efficiency or higher return to land and management. How can we squeeze more dollars out of every dollar that we invest?

AARON SEIFERT: We’ve heard a hundred times that you can’t cut your way to prosperity, right? You can’t save your way to prosperity. So it’s not necessarily about spending less on the investment side, it’s about getting more out of every dollar that you are spending on every input decision that you’re making.

DAN FRIEBERG: And to me that always happens in the subfield. You can make really crude adjustments, like treating fields differently. That might be a starting place for some people. But to me, it always drives way deeper than that. If I’m going to drive economic change and higher returns, I’ve got to change things within the field. Not every acre is the same. Geography matters. Where you are in the field matters, and how you manage what you do in parts of fields makes all the difference.

AARON SEIFERT: That’s great. I think the focus on the efficiency pieces is always bigger. Regardless of what the market’s like, you always want to take advantage of the dollars that you spend, but it’s exceptionally important in times where margins are critically tight.

DAN FRIEBERG: And this COVID-19 thing is going to have a long tail, I believe. And I believe that it’s going to change our world. Over the 20 years of our company history, one of the big changes has been the connectedness of the world. The reason the virus could spread so much quicker is we are so connected as a world. And what’s going to come to the forefront is all these integrated supply chains and all the things that we take for granted. But one of the things that I think is going to play out is how much we take the food supply for granted. And I think we could have significant disruption in the food supply, including the meat industry.

So many people in the world have taken for granted how darn efficient the food chain is. Capitalism has an amazing ability to drive cost out of the system. But what happens? When you drive cost out of the system, you end up with a whole bunch of just-in-time delivery. It is the whole system. Why, all of a sudden, do we run out of everything at the grocery store? It’s because everything is managed so tightly. The whole supply chain is managed so tightly that it’s a well-oiled machine. But when you throw some big wrench into a well-oiled machine, you’re going to see more empty shelves.

You know, I couldn’t find chicken at the store last night. I mean, I could find drumsticks and wings, but I couldn’t find any other chicken. And it’s a big store! But that could happen over and over again. It depends on how this plays out. But at the end of the day, one of the things I hope comes out of this is a new appreciation for what agriculture does and what the food industry and all of us are about, just the totality of what agriculture does for the American consumer and for the world. What a job we’ve done at a very low cost. And hopefully, in turn, we end up with some higher prices. We sure need some luck that way.

AARON SEIFERT: Yeah, that would help out the outlook today for sure. The good thing is that ranchers are still ranching and farmers are still putting seed in the ground. Like you said, we’ve gotten so incredibly good and efficient at doing that. That’s where it just becomes ever more important to manage those growers’ operations better and better, taking every opportunity to learn from something and try something new and to continuously improve. Because if we’re not doing that, then our outlook looks pretty bleak if we’re not constantly improving.

DAN FRIEBERG: Yeah, we’re really fortunate. Farmers, by nature, are incredibly optimistic, but it’s hard. It’s hard to stay optimistic sometimes, but they are by nature. That’s why they do what they do. It’s fun. It makes it fun to work with them. When we get involved, we understand the economics because we deal with it. We deal with the economics. We know how ugly it is and how hard it is to make it work. Knowing the grower’s economics makes us better at what we do. It makes us work that much harder because we know how tight it is for the grower.

AARON SEIFERT: Absolutely. Alright, well we appreciate your time today, Dan. Thanks for the insight. Looking forward to the many changes to come, and we’ll see what happens here after COVID-19.

DAN FRIEBERG: Yeah, we can talk again sometime about the future, but there’s going to be a lot of change in the next 10 years for sure. That’ll be another fun discussion.

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002: Grower’s Experience with Farm Analytics

farm data

agronomics and economics

Today we are talking about a grower’s experience with farm analytics and precision ag. We are joined by Aaron Seifert, Business Development Manager for Premier Crop Systems.

About Aaron: Aaron is a lifelong farm kid from Southern Minnesota. His family has livestock as well as a row crop operation. As a Business Development Manager for Premier Crop Systems, Aaron has the opportunity to help many different farming operations with precision ag. Aaron’s career history has been in the hardware side of precision ag, where he has worked with third-party hardware applications, and has now shifted to the software side.

In this episode we cover:

  • Misconceptions about Data Analytics
  • Cutting Inputs With Tight Margins
  • Analyzing Good and Bad Spots in the Field
  • The Evolution of Data and Farm Analytics over the Last 100 years
  • Improving Yields Using Historical Data
  • How Premier Crop Differentiates Through Advising

If you are enjoying the show, tweet us using #PremierPodcast.

Agriculture Through the Years

My grandpa turns 91 years old this spring. He has farmed for 75 years, and retired last fall. I can’t help but think of all the changes he’s seen in agriculture during his lifetime. The changes from equipment to genetics, chemistry, and technology seem almost endless. Though he’s made numerous advancements in his operation, change didn’t always come easily. When I was selling hardware, I thought auto-steer would be a great addition for him. I think his exact words were “If you can’t drive straight, you shouldn’t be farming!” He eventually adapted, but it’s not easy to let go of the wheel when you’ve driven for that many years. He started farming with horses, and now he runs a 500 horsepower QuadTrac steered by satellites.

Since the beginning of agriculture, farmers have always had to be analytical. It is impossible to survive in any industry without gaining an understanding of inputs and outputs. This usually involves some visual observations, measurements, and then potential adjustments. The amount of data we create as we farm, the speed at which we can do it, and the relationships and variables we can account for are some of the biggest advancements we’ve made since my grandpa started farming.

How Do We Use Farm Analytics?

All the different pieces of data we gather and create are independently important. They give us an idea of what may be going on in any given part of a field. However, it’s not until you bring all those layers together and let the technology crunch through it that you see the value. The value is in the relationships.

At Premier Crop, we go further than just analyze where the good spots and the bad spots are in the fields. We use soil samples, as-applied data, farming practices, weather, and much more to see exactly what the yield-limiting and profit-limiting factors are in each of those areas. By assigning cost and distributing it spatially, we see the economic impact of each input decision. We know variability exists, and we believe that all yield is not created equal. So, we understand that in different parts of the field, it takes different things to maximize a grower’s investment. Producing yield efficiently is our overall goal. Our system is designed to help growers make every input dollar matter more.

By utilizing Premier Crop, growers can use a software system to better understand what’s going on in a field. Growers also have the opportunity to work with an agronomic advisor. Our advisors work with growers to determine the areas where they should be aggressive. They also help manage risk when making agronomic and economic decisions. Ultimately, nobody knows a particular field better than the grower does. An algorithm doesn’t have all the answers. Being able to have that conversation and help enhance the software through shared learning with the grower is key.

Tying Agronomics to Economics

In the graph below, you can see a grower’s yield and Yield Efficiency in a particular field compared to his other corn fields. You are also able to see how each individual input decision contributed to the overall Yield Efficiency. Each area can be broken down further to better understand the impact.

farm analytics

The farm analytics are impressive, but sometimes there’s a false perception that the analytics are the only answer. In many cases, the farm analytics can lead to many questions such as:

  • How can I take advantage of the best parts of each field?
  • Can you help me manage risk in the poorer parts of my fields?
  • What are some ways I can limit poor economic decision making?

Ultimately, if you’re not really looking through your data, you end up guessing. Sometimes you might be right, but more often than not, guessing isn’t going to get you any better returns. How many dollars do you leave on the table by guessing? The numbers we see are significant. Knowing the impact of each dollar based on your own data gives you the power to make better decisions, and take advantage of different market environments.

Using Data and Analytics to Make Decisions

What it really boils down to is: how are you using your data as you farm? How are you using the data to make more confident, profitable decisions? Tie dollars to agronomics and make sure you’re producing yield as efficiently as possible. You spend hundreds of dollars on input costs per acre. Wouldn’t you sleep better at night knowing you have the right product and right rate for each part of every field?

My grandpa was able to farm for all those years because he adapted to change, took calculated risks, and analyzed the results. The concepts are still true today even though the operations are larger and the technology is more advanced. The growers who continually look for ways to improve and who understand the economic impact of each decision will be the most successful and able to weather the storms and changes over the next 75 years.

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001: Does Variable Rate Seeding Pay?

tractor planting

Today we are joined by Mike Manning (aka @datamanning on Twitter) to discuss variable rate seeding in precision ag.

Mike is an agronomic information advisor in the state of Nebraska. He’s a western Nebraska farm kid from the panhandle with a wide range of precision and agronomic experience. Mike has been working closely with growers throughout most of Nebraska for the last eight years.

In this episode we cover:

Laying the Foundation for your Growing Season

As the calendar turns to April, and the planting season nears, many producers are finalizing planting plans. Your planting operation (hybrid and variety selection, seeding rate decisions, and the execution of it all) will lay a critical foundation for your growing season.

Of all the fieldwork we do in a given year, planting is one operation we only have one chance to get right (assuming you’re not a fan of replanting). Above all, one of the most important decisions growers can make is determining the best seeding rate for each of your hybrids and varieties. Aside from properly setting up and configuring the planter itself, that is.

Historically, seed selection and seeding rate decisions have been based on a wide variety of available resources. These include seed plot data, ag retailer/coop trials (often in conjunction with major seed suppliers), seed advisors, and ‘neighbor input’, as well as a variety of seed company rate calculators available online. While a diverse selection of resources are available, how do you know if these seeding rates are actually suitable for your farm?

In 2005, as GPS-based variable rate planting entered the equipment market, Premier Crop introduced the Learning Block™ concept. Learning Blocks are  2 – 4 acre blocks placed in specific areas of the field (unlike strip-trials), giving growers and advisors the opportunity to test and verify responses to different seeding (and/or fertility) rates in a low-risk, easily executable experiment (IE +/- 3,000 seeds/acre). Combined with Management Zone based VR seeding, these Learning BlockTM trials opened the door for growers to measure and build their own population response datasets on their own farm. Importantly, Learning Blocks, also provided insight as to where those population changes should take place within the field.

Enhanced Learning Blocks (ELBs)

In 2016, Premier Crop Systems unveiled a new tool called Enhanced Learning Block™ (ELBs)*. Building upon the traditional Learning Blocks concept, ELBs allow for testing multiple rates within the same block, all while incorporating the hallmarks of traditional experimental design; randomization and replication. These randomized and replicated trials increase confidence in the trial results, which ultimately guide better decisions. Perhaps most important, growers and advisors can execute research quality trials, with their own equipment, and within each of their own fields.

So, how important is knowing the right seeding rate? Does it really produce any more yield? Does it really save me any money? Am I any more efficient than I was before? The examples below illustrate the importance of determining, and knowing, the right seeding rate for each hybrid and variety on your farm.

In this field, we have two ELBs, each testing four populations, and replicated 5 times within each block.  By comparing the target rates to the as-planted rates, the equipment is very capable of executing the trials.

variable seeding example

Reviewing the post-harvest analysis below, we instantly see the seeding rate had a significant impact on yield (for this particular hybrid, in this particular geography).

So, does seeding rate impact yield? The yield difference from 32,000 seeds/acre to 35,000 seeds/acre is 11 bushels/acre!

trial variable seeding rate

yield planting population whisker chart

 

“DOES PLANTING THE RIGHT RATE SAVE, 
AND/OR MAKE ME MORE MONEY?”

Variable Rate Seeding Dollars and Cents

Accounting for seed cost, and using $3.50/bu grain price, knowing to plant this hybrid at 35,000 seeds/acre v. 32,000 seeds/acre is a $29/acre decision!

38,000 seeds/acre is technically the winner in this trial. However, is the additional seed investment risk (3,000 seeds @ ~$9.40/acre), worth the relatively modest gain?

Also, we see that pushing too far, to 41,000 seeds/acre, results in ~$35/acre loss compared to 35,000 or 38,000 seeds/acre.

trial seeding rate

yield data whisker chart

The examples I’m discussing come from an irrigated Nebraska corn and soybean operation that has successfully executed over 175 ELB trials since 2016. In this case, the grower likely has more research quality, hybrid specific population response data, generated from their own fields, than the seed companies.

You can start building your own knowledge base for your own farm by incorporating Enhanced Learning Blocks™, and working with a trusted Premier Crop Partner, or Premier Crop Agronomic Advisor.  Aggregating your own ELB results can take your on-farm knowledge to the next level.

hybrid population response

Contact Premier Crop to test your seeding rates and get started with variable rate seeding. Our agronomic information advisors can help you build own ELBs in your own fields.

NOTE: *ELBs can go anywhere! They are not region specific. Our Partners and Advisors have placed over 3,000 ELBs the last two years in the US and Canada. ELBs can be used to test a wide variety of products including Fertilizer, Crop Protection, and Seed through a variety of application methods.

    • Dry Fertilizer Applicator
    • Planter
      • In-Furrow and starter – multiple rates or on/off
    • PRE and POST fertility
      • Sprayer, strip-till, coulter bars, drop nozzles etc.
    • Crop Protection – Ground Applied
      • Fungicide
      • Biologicals
      • Other yield enhancement products

 

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