Water Continues to Poke Holes in Traditional Zone Management
Water Continues to Poke Holes in Traditional Zone Management
Precision plus agronomy holds keys to unlocking full potential
INDIANAPOLIS (Oct. 7, 2021) – As harvest continues for most in the Corn belt, farmers are seeing variability in their fields first-hand, a result of yet another unique growing season. One company, Advanced Agrilytics, has set out to help their customers prepare for and manage against challenges present in their field on the front end. Proactive management starts with understanding what exactly your current system does and doesn’t do for consistent results and with fall fertilizer happening, planning for next year starts now.
SSURGO field data was revolutionary when the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) began collecting it several decades ago. But, managing just to broad zones within fields could leave quite a bit of potential on the table given today’s management capabilities. Seth Logan, a precision agronomist for Advanced Agrilytics, says considering specific environments in the fields starts not by just understanding soil, but also understanding water.
“Water is a major factor that often gets overlooked when making management plans,” says Logan, who advises Advanced Agrilytics customers in southern Illinois. “Soil maps and imagery are great, but they don’t help you predict and manage for risk. That really comes from water and how wet or dry an acre really gets during unpredictable weather.”
For Advanced Agrilytics customers, that distinct look at water is delivered by a proprietary approach that combines a number of layers including Soil Wetness Index and their exclusive Nitrogen Loss Potential, all included as part of the full service provided by Advanced Agrilytics. The approach identifies dry, nominal and wet acres in a field to assess risk for inputs, like nitrogen, and performance. Then, it uses a sliding scale to help farmers make more calculated decisions across a field.
“Many of my customers have been diligent in using whatever technology they can get their hands on, from yield maps to satellite imagery,” adds Logan. “But those only tell you what happened, not what is going to happen. Our field diagnostics really focus on what could happen and manage against that. Plus, farmers aren’t buying another technology, they are getting a service.”
Logan’s experience in the ag industry has allowed him a first-hand look into other systems, but he says Advanced Agrilytics is just different. By using the technology farmers already have on their farm and combining it with new analytics based on environments found within a field, Advanced Agrilytics delivers a more finite recommendation than the competition, ultimately delivering results.
Farmers who adopt technology but know they aren’t using it to their full potential are in luck. Advanced Agrilytics doesn’t just make customized recommendations, they pair it with precision agronomists, like Logan, who walk fields all season long to provide agronomic expertise and observations.
Logan and the rest of the 50+ agronomists on the roster at Advanced Agrilytics leverage the team’s expansive production experience with an equally qualified team of data scientists to provide unique, unbiased recommendations to customers.
About Advanced Agrilytics
Advanced Agrilytics is an agronomy services company that fills the gap between the mountains of data farmers have accumulated and the agronomic know-how to put it into action. The team of agronomy experts is backed by an equally matched team of data scientists to provide customers in the Midwest unbiased recommendations backed by science-based insights. To find out more, visit advancedagrilytics.com.