MFA Integrates Adapt-N Across Its Precision Offering

For the past three years, the team at MFA Incorporated has been working with the Adapt-N platform. After these years of experience, the cooperative is now expanding its use of Adapt-N across its Precision Advantage, Crop-Trak and Nutri-Track platforms.

Adapt-N is a real-time nitrogen recommendation tool that uses crop modeling, soil information, field data, and weather data. Adapt-N was developed by Agronomic Technology Corporation and was acquired by Yara International in late 2017.

“Using this technology gives our agronomy consultants the ability to provide an improved nitrogen recommendation,” explains Thad Becker, MFA Incorporated Precision Agronomy Manager. “In each year we’ve tested the tool, we’ve gradually increased acres.”

MFA serves Missouri and parts of eastern Kansas, and Becker estimates across their trade area adoption of their precision platforms ranges from 5-50% of the total acres.

“With Adapt-N, we can sit down with a grower and make a plan. There’s a lot of value in having knowledge about a farmer’s acres so that even if you need to make a last minute application, we’re ready to do so,” Becker says.

He says using the Adapt-N model across their precision offering is another valuable layer of data in working with farmers to improve their nutrient stewardship and yields.

“Previously, it’s been difficult to quantify nitrogen loss and put that into dollars and cents for the farmer,” he says. “With Adapt-N, we can look at the loss charts and the rainfall charts and quantify the amount of denitrification/leaching losses that can occur when we have a 5 in rain event over a week period.”