To imply that any Agronomic Advisor that has built a program that has proven itself to bring value your operation over the years has any intention of selling Tons vs. enabling your long-term success is irresponsible.

Field Analytics is the emerging buzz area of Precision Ag. It has existed for several years in many different forms and offerings, but never really gained a lot of momentum or a large following. And honestly, it’s because it is a challenging proposition to get correct.

Precision Ag, as a whole, has a fascination, and a conundrum when it comes to Yield Data. The Holy Grail is to take your local data and turn it into useful and useable tools that drive decisions and input application.

As I was driving back and forth between our office and warehouse a couple of weeks ago, there was a survey crew working along the highway. They had their RTK antenna in one hand, and their data logger in the other. And for the next few days, they continued to work on this stretch of highway doing a survey of elevation. And it got me to thinking about how all of us adopt technology, and specifically how quickly we do it.

The best football coaches always have a game plan. Some of them even script their first few plays so that the team knows exactly how to prepare and come out of the gate for the best start. I think in farming that we do the same thing every season. But without a doubt, the game has thrown us some major variations that we were not expecting.

As we are watching this corn crop come out of the ground this year, it’s time to begin evaluating what has happened thus far. Different areas have had wet spells and planted corn in wet soils, while almost everybody has planted in cold soils. We have had humidity that made residue management difficult, and the wind that has buried clean strips with trash. Through it all, you all did the best job you could to manage the conditions that you had and planting to the best of your abilities. So now is the time to grade your work.

As we are in the midst of putting our crop in this year, there are a few things that some of us take for granted. One of those is straight rows, which most any system can deliver.

All too often, in Precision Ag, we get drawn in by the shiny new objects. The newest gadget or widget on the market garners all of our attention, and we wait to learn more and learn its ROI. And when this happens, all too often we forget about some of the older players on our bench.