Grower's Advice

Grower's Advice

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Precision agriculturalist Kirk's Stueve. “Whenever the market prices are this low, we’re right at the cost of production for some corn and soybean growers and others are well below it. So really you're faced with options when you're planning for the growing season and if those prices are a little stronger, most growers would invest a bit more in fertilizer better seed, higher populations. They would spend substantially more per acre to make sure they have the resources there to maximize yield potential if they really get an outstanding year. With prices as tight as they are that's not a real viable option for most growers. Then you're left with two other options. One, restrict your inputs and just roll the dice and see what happens when you're investing less per acre in general, usually what happens there is if you have a nice growing season you're not in a position to respond and capitalize on a potentially bumper crop. The last option. This is kind of tying back into Ceres and just precision agriculture in general, you're conservative with your initial inputs a minimal amount on for fertilizer and so forth in the spring and then as the season unfolds take advantage of technology and precision agriculture to see how that crop is unfolding during the season. And if it looks like it's going to be a good season and you're going to have a good crop and maybe there's a market run you can take advantage of, you can use those insights and that data to make decisions about investing more inputs during the season that are more closely tied to a return on investment.
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