VRT.. Echelon or Farmers Edge

[mbratrud]

So often I hear of guys going to VR but have never soil tested their whole farm. To me that's the first step. I would recommend Crop Pro at Naicam as another consideration. To me Veris testing along with good soil tests of zones is providing you with more meaningful information to make your decisions. Also some of our biggest success in VR has been more to do with seeding rate. We also found we were blanket applying Potash when it was only 1 zone or 15% of our farm that actually needed it.

[ado089]

I haven't seen any of the big guys get VR right. Some will fluke out on a field or two but in general they don't get it. I've built VR maps for one of the other big guys and I've been using VR on my land for 5 years. I would say overall it's saves me 20lb/ac of N and lets me push yields about 10%. I actually have seen the best results simply VR seeding my lentils, huge gains from less disease and better hilltop establishment.

There are 5 things that go into making a good map they are; water, water, water, water, and water. Measure where the water is and you'll measure where the yield will be. Water will influence this years crop and has been influencing vegetative growth since glaciation. I've gotten away on fields with more consistent texture by simply running a water flow/aspect analysis. If the texture is all over the map too it's a good idea to overlay a veris or EM-38 map. Depending on the field you should need no more than 2-4 zones and the only reason to have 4 is if there is salinity. Always VR the seeding rate but understand why for each crop. Cereals I thin out the hill tops and thicken the low spots, canola and lentils I do the opposite. At the end of the day all you want to do is allocate resources to where they have the best chance of making the most money. Hope this helps ask if you have more questions.

[ajl]

Actually the order is first inflation and then deflation. Examples include the 1920 then 30's. The 1970's then the 80's. Last six years inflation then the next years deflation. Inflation was largely confined to asset and commodity prices because Asia helped keep the consumer prices under pressure these last few years but they were the inflation years.

[ado089]

Money is such a small part of the money supply. You can print until you run out of ink if it's not being lent, leveraged and put into producing goods it doesn't mean a thing. What has been the gross impact of $4 trillion of stimulous on the US economy? A few hundred billion in GDP? Sounds like a piss poor investment to me. That money has gone straight into the equity markets and any sort of meaningful correction in either equities or bonds or few major deafaults and all that extra printed money is gone at the click of a mouse. Luckly for us we've taken alot of our lumps price wise but I think servicing debt on imaginary equity will be tough on our industry.

[mbratrud]

Agree Ado089. Much of your VR planning is where is the water going to be? How can I use it to its maximum potential across all inputs, whether it's too much, too little or just right.

[mbratrud]

Agree Ado089. Much of your VR planning is where is the water going to be? How can I use it to its maximum potential across all inputs, whether it's too much, too little or just right.

[ado089]

Step two is finding an agronomist that can sample the fields and not blow smoke up your ass about the yield potential for each zone. N is very rarely the limiting nutrient in your poorer performing areas.

[Klause]

So why don't yall just do your own maps???? It isn't rocket science.


Paying people to do all these things... educate yourself.

The software is relatively cheap. Topography maps are free. For 5 to 10k you can prepare accurate ndvi maps at spraying time.


There's sensors out there that you can do your own soil tests even... technology has advanced quickly let's use it.

[kato]

Which is why we cattle producers are pretty much pounding the proceeds of this years good prices back onto debt. Been there, done that, never want to do it again. We had the experience of losing 90% of our equity in five minutes back in 2003. Now that's a market " correction" if there ever was one.

Unless you lived it, it's hard to describe what that felt like. Imagine in the space of time it took to drink a cup of coffee, you were told that your $500,000 house is now worth $50,000. You are still expected to make the payments on the full amount, and oh, by the way, it may be a couple of years before you can have a paycheck.

It was closer to ten years before things started looking up. That's a long time. It's all a matter of perspective. What causes greater suffering? Losing the ability to trade that $80,000 truck in every year? Or lose everything, like some people I know did.

[canolacrazy]

oil is down another 4% today. that makes over 60% in just six months. just sit back and watch the carnage. fertilizer, chemical is next. the bright side, cash is king again.

[cottonpicken]

It's still all about the debt. The entire market is rigged and if investors ever got a wiff of inflation they would sell those low yield bonds in a heart beat and the fed would be forced to buy them then the entire thing becomes unglued.

[furrowtickler]

Agreed ajl
When we look back at the past 5 years we will see a strong inflationary time here in Canada
Just think about the increase in costs from say 2008 up till Dec 2014 for
Food
Fuel
Housing
Vehicles
Machinery
All transportation - air , rail , trucking
Land - rual and urban
Labour
Some of these alone have doubled or trippled in this time period. Inflation has been starring us in the face for a while .
It may not have been an overnight issue but it has been strong and steady just under the radar, constantly.
I also agree with housing - the writing has been on the wall for two years - it is not sustainable at any level of economics - it just needed a trigger ( oil) to pop the bubble .

[farmaholic]

Sooooo, land prices will be coming down?

Oh well, it looked good on the Net Worth Statement for a while.

[seabass]

Easy to say and do on 1500 acres but try it on 5000 plus. You still need help for some of it.
Agree ado on the veris. We have finished all our acres now and it is one thing that will never change so you will always have that as a good reference for making zones.

[fjlip]

Maybe not selling saved us from losing it on paper and in other investments. Just an imaginary number, buying power was low in inflated housing etc. Time will tell, if you have time to wait that is.