The Three Agronomy Tools Every Farm Should Be Optimizing
Andrew Lambert, technology services manager at Centra Sota Cooperative, shares how his team is structured to help farmers advance their yields and return on investment. He says technology can be overwhelming because of how everything intertwines like a cobweb. But as a baseline: the exponential benefits will come when they are able to get a majority of their farmers optimizing soil sampling, variable rate fertilizer, and yield mapping.
A few years ago, the department re-organized under three teams:
- Precision ag services
“This includes services to the farmer and the internal precision ag tools that benefit us and the farmer,” Lambert says. - Environmental services.
“This is the newest idea for us. We actually have a small team dedicated to helping our farmer customers work through government programs and offerings such as CAP and EQIP programs,” he says. - Equipment sales and service.
“This is bulit on a long term Precision Planting dealership. We have expanded sales and service by adding new equipment lines. The goal is to be a solution dealer to our farmers for a specific range of equipment,” Lambert says.
He says this has helped bring structure and focus to how the co-op team can bring value to farmers.
“It's a cobweb–everything's touching each other and kind of play off of each other,” Lambert says. “The conservation buzz is real in our area. A lot of times, farmers want some extra help in those areas specifically.”
In the recent years, Centra Sota added Zimmerman strip-till equipment to their lineup.
While yield monitors have become base equipment on new combines, Lambert says there’s still a lot of gains to be made. He says within their customer base only 25% are maximizing their use of soil sampling, variable rate fertilizer, and yield data.
“The piece that is missing is we are using the tools, and the amount of acres that are being pushed to 100% of potential or realizing the limited potential on certain acres,” he says. “What’s undervalued is spending time with a an agronomic advisor that can use a combination of those three simple tools that have been around for a long time, and put together a realistic plan that's going to give you the biggest bang for your buck.”
The team is Centra Sota is also ready to help farmers adopt new technologies such as variable rate irrigation and spray drones. Lambert says they are keenly focused at helping farmers find success.
“A lot of the customers that we work with its their livelihood, their income for the year is based on their success of their business,” he says. “The ability to buy Christmas present comes down from good advice and good products. So that's what my boss told me and I tried to tell everybody. We're here to do what's right for the customer first.”
