Carson Continued

Fungicide treatments pay dividends

Do your own field tests.

“Fungicide on wheat? Well that’s another $13 an acre,” Carson states.  “Let’s see if it really works? If you get your money back?”

He first set up a field test using fungicides from three different manufacturers and three different varieties of wheat, leaving a check strip through each variety and each chemical.

Next, he took his field maps to his aerial applicator and instructed them to leave check strips 180-feet wide, “but, don’t tell me where you left them. If I can’t find them with the yield monitor in the combine, it’s not worth it.”

The results: Carson found out exactly where the check strips were when he harvested the crop with his combine and FIELDSTAR yield monitor.

“Where we didn’t put on ay fungicide, in the check strip areas, the wheat was going backward like crazy. When we harvested there was a 22-bu/acre difference in yield where we ran across our fungicide check with the combine.

“Without the yield monitor, how would you know that fungicides work? Or, how well they work? There were even variations in yield where a slight drift had moved the fungicide into the check area.”

Carson is convinced that you need a yield map to prove what you’re doing – where you can cut back on crop inputs and where you can’t.

FIELDSTAR yield map of Carson’s wheat field shows untreated fungicide check strip, boxed area. Fungicide treatment resulted in a $33 per acre profit increase.

Heading to Higher Ground
FIELDSTAR® teams up with satellite images and variable rate applications to cut costs, improve crop quality and boost yields in this advanced program.

According to multi-crop grower Pete Carson, a complete Precision Agriculture plan is the best way to manage inputs, increase outputs and create better margins.

“if we can attain higher yields with less inputs, we’re saving on both ends of the spectrum,” states Carson. “It’s a win-win situation….through applying the tools of precision agriculture.”

The results of Carson’s program are the “proof of the pudding”. By analyzing each field on a year-in, year-out basis, he has cut costs, boosted yields and improved quality.

Here are some of the highlights of his program:

• Analyzes carryover fertilizer so the amount needed for the next crop is applied.
• Manages N to reduce lodging in wheat while increasing yield
• Systematically uses check strips to prove the payback value of fungicide treatments and other crop inputs.
• Increases crop quality by as much as 15% on sugar beets to nail down premium prices.
• Passes along accurate field information via field map overlays to growers who lease a portion of his acres so they can improve their production.
• Protects the environments by applying only what the crop needs on an accurate basis using variable rate technology (VRT).

“We’re cutting back nitrogen in wheat, dramatically,” points out Carson. “That saves input dollars while our yields go up.  The misconception is out quality must be poor.  Instead, it’s improving.  The reason is that cutting back N in wheat also reduces lodging and disease.  Without the tools of Precision Agriculture, we never would get the right information and know what to do to achieve these results.”

Carson also reports favorably on the environmental aspects of Precision Agriculture.

“With the technology that’s available today, we can reduce excess materials in our water and aquifers as well as preserve organisms in our soil,” he concludes. “That’s an added benefit now, but in the long run, it may be the most important one.”

I think we can improve our profits another 20-50%, maybe more,” says Pete Carson, Precision Agriculture farmer.  Carson has outlined the key steps in his program and often gives presentations to GPS groups and other farmers on what he’s learned.

Hurtt Equipment, Inc | Highway 18 South | Hoople, ND 58243
Ph: (701) 894-6363 | Fax: (701) 894-6579