THE IMPORTANCE OF CAPTURING QUALITY YIELD DATA

Yield data can reveal a comprehensive picture of variable conditions across your fields and is imperative for year-round decision making… if it is accurate. Fortunately, the Heritage Cooperative Crop Advantage team can assist you in collecting quality yield data with powerful precision ag technology. Michael Phelps, regional Crop Advantage specialist provides insight on collecting data and utilizing platforms for good decision making.

Question: What are the benefits of soil sampling and what insights does it provide?

•  The benefit of having a good soil sampling program paired with quality data analysis is that you can compare your yields with what nutrients are in the soil and make accurate recommendations for additional nutrient applications.
• You can use soil sampling data to make fertility and seeding recommendations and then analyze the yield data to see if the recommendations that were made provided a positive ROI and to what level.

Question: Can this same technology help with analyzing in-season crop management activities like tissue sampling or crop protection applications?

• Quality yield data can provide additional insights for in-season management decisions such as fungicide or micronutrient applications. Another important benefit of capturing quality yield data is to be able to utilize it across different ag tech platforms like Climate, so you can look at yield analysis and compare against past years' data.

Question: With harvest right around the corner, what should I be doing now to prepare to capture quality yield data?

• Check all your cables that are used to provide data and make sure the connections are tight and not damaged.
• Have your equipment dealer check out all the necessary sensors and GPS configurations to make sure everything is communicating so it provides yield data to the monitor.
• Make sure to calibrate your monitor to ensure it will provide quality yield data that you can use to make sound agronomic decisions.
• If you are using Climate,be sure to update to the latest version of the FieldView Cab app. Once you have updated the app you will want to perform a “Cloud Sync” so that any field boundaries that you have changed will be updated and accurate with your harvest data.

Contact your local Heritage agronomist to set up time with a Crop Advantage specialist to help you get the most out of your data. You can count on them to leverage precision ag platforms to their fullest potential, providing you with an efficient way to make the right decisions at the right time.