By Logan Haake

As the spring planting season approaches, it is a good time to make sure the yield data that were collected in the fall are accurate and put to good use. Good data are important to making accurate recommendations.

Post-calibration? Post-calibration of data is a good way to make the data that you took the time to collect as accurate as possible. Many GIS systems have the capability to go into each field, or fields as a whole farm, and manually enter scale-ticket weights or bushels to get a post-calibration of the field.

How can imaging help? Yield data can also be layered with imaging to come up with variable-rate nitrogen recommendations. These recommendations can be placed into the operation’s nitrogen program as an early-season nitrogen application or a late-season N application, such as a Y-drop application. Good on-farm yield history allows growers to create multiyear yield analysis, to find the common zones that have the biggest opportunity spread across various years and conditions.

How does yield history help with farm history? Collecting multiple years of yield data allows for more accurate management zones. A good collection of yield data would consist of five years or more of data. This also allows for years of extreme or outside-of-normal conditions to potentially be taken out of the data set when making recommendations. As the data are collected and layered, the management zone can move according to yield, soil type, application of products and grower knowledge of the farm. The application equipment technology allows for accurate application of phosphorus, potassium, nitrogen, foliar product applications and variable-rate seeding by varying seeding rates and hybrids.

How important are yield data? Yield data collection can be a pivotal part of an operation. Timely entering your spatial data into a GIS software system will help make sure data are not lost. There are new tools in the market to make this process seamless. An example is wireless data transfer and other in-cab applications that allow for hands-off transfer, compared to pulling information on a memory stick or SD cards and importing it into a computer or other external device.

Again, another key ingredient to remember is making sure to calibrate to collect good data, which allows for many opportunities to maximize efficiency and profitability of farming operations. Analyzing the data with sound agronomics allows for good management recommendations.

Haake is a Certified Crop Adviser with Legacy Farmers’ Cooperative, based in Findlay, Ohio. Contact him at [email protected].