Take Time to Fight For Every Inch

Combining this week has been interesting with weather, equipment, and ground condition issues abound.  One thing we did see was one field where down pressure was not working for part of the field when it was planted.  Where it was, we saw a 20 bushel bump from better planting depth and spacing.  So for 10 acres of a field we lost $600 from not taking time to fix an issue on the planter that took 15 minutes to fix, that works out to about $2,400/hour worth of our time to fix the issue we found.

I get it, we all get in a rush to put crops in, take care of them, and harvest them all on time but those minor issues we ignore while we are in that rush can cost real money and bushels.  It's often that
during harvest we really find out what we lost by not waiting for drier conditions, fixing small issues, or making sure our spacing is correct, etc.  It's amazing to see how much just little mundane things will affect the outcome of our crops.

I love the speech from Any Given Sunday where Al Pacino talks about how the little things make a huge difference in the outcome of life and in the game.  Agriculture has a lot to do with this quote. In the pursuit of more yield we can forget the little things that lay the ground work for that payday.  My focus has always been those little details that we focus on.

While some may recommend products to fix issues, paying attention to details and having a plan going into the season is a far better approach.  We spend a large chunk of the winter talking about tillage, planter setup, and soil conditions for a reason. Our goals should always be higher than what we are currently doing, and there are ways to get there.  While products can make a difference in how our crop comes out in the end, there is always a cost associated with them.  Sometimes making little tweaks, or stopping to fix issues can benefit us by only a minor time investment.  That's our focus, taking the time to understand what we are doing that could be changed easily to gain those bushels at minimal cost.  So instead of products, spend your time to dial in your agronomy.  Those are the inches you can gain that maybe can get you to your goal.

How Do You Perceive Value?

I've often been told no matter how long the meetings you attend are you will likely take 2-3 things home from them.  When I attended a training a couple weeks ago one story was something I took home and dissected.  The presenter talked about a story of buying gloves at a store when they were on sale for 50% off.  When he took them to the register the woman behind it said he should have been there last week when they were buy one get one free, it was a "better deal".  While most logical people would understand that if you buy one and get the other free essentially buying two at 50% off is exactly the same "deal", this cashier didn't see it that way.

The question here is really how do you or your customers perceive value.  While something may be a deal to one the other may not see it that way.  Agriculture is full of these "deals" and often they are the same or if you run the numbers maybe one that doesn't appear to be a deal is in fact a better deal.  We are often distracted by price and don't look at the "value" in products we are buying.  I was routinely frustrated growing up with a father who valued price over quality.  In one instance we were looking at brake pads for my car when I was a teenager and I remember him buying the cheapest ones we could find only to have to replace them a year later, swearing as we did it a second time.  I think the cheap organic ones were something like $25 while the better longer lasting ceramic pads were $50.  Just think about how much time it took to replace them along with the added trip to the store and the swearing that ensued.  In reality, we likely didn't break even on the fact we replaced the pads twice in one year with all the added work.  These stories remind me why I often take out a calculator (open the app on my phone), or pull out a pen and paper and do the math on the alternatives.  At the time it was frustrating but as I get older these "lessons" taught me to look at all the facts and think with a business mindset about decisions.

In Ag, we see these situations present themselves more often than not.  In a previous life I sold potash that had a 62% analysis at a $10 higher price/ton.  When you actually did the math at current prices it made financial sense that even at a higher price we were in fact cheaper per unit of K.  Believe it or not that was a tough sell a lot of times.  Farmers perceived that it was the same product and it was hard to see past a difference in price.  We did get an additional margin on selling the higher analysis, but was that worth losing sales over perceived value?

I've also been part of the seed financing debate and a lot of that was perceived value as well.  Many companies offer financing at different interest rates, with some having 0% financing and charging more for the seed up front, others advertising 0% financing but in the fine print it's 0% over prime, and others just regular financing at a certain interest rate based on the prime interest rate.  Which one would draw most peoples attention?  A lot of farms gravitated towards anyone offering 0% financing with the perception they got a deal when they in fact often paid 3-5% more for seed to cover the financing. 

So what is the moral of all this?  When you are making purchase or business decisions weigh out the actual cost of products over what the perceived costs are.  Most people or companies are not trying to pull wool over your eyes with deals, they are merely trying to create programs that are appealing to a broad group.  When asked they should explain all the programs or "deals" to you in detail, if they don't want to that's another blog post... 

With lower commodity prices and potentially higher input costs it's important to weigh your options and think long term not just about saving a dollar today.  Spending time analyzing farm expenses and purchases is something you should regularly be doing.  It makes good fiscal sense and will help you in the long term to continue to be a viable business.

Soybean Aphid Scouting R5 and Beyond

With a flourish of calls today it's that time of year again, when we are nearing the end of the growing season and soybeans are almost past soybean aphid threshold timing.  When soybeans reach the R5 growth stage we typically will see a late season flush of aphids and with it a rush of panic from growers worried they need to spray.  The interesting thing for me is not the farmer calls I get it's often the other agronomists trying to assuage their growers fears calling me for advice.  So here it is, what I look for scouting aphids from R5 on.

The common threshold for spraying soybeans for aphids is a population of 250 aphids/plant at R3-R4 with that changing to 250 aphids/plant and growing during R5 or podfill. R5 is when you have a seed 1/8" long at one of the top four nodes on the soybean plant.  A node is classified by having a fully developed leaf which really means any node on the main stem with a fully developed leaf (the leaflets are not touching and fully out).  Most soybeans are fully into this stage right now with some reaching R5.5 which is when we have a seed filling half the cavity in the pod on those top four nodes.  At R5.5 our threshold for soybean aphids is really up in the air, but the common theme continues 250 aphids/plant with population increasing.  The reason for paying attention to R5.5 is that R5 only really lasts about two weeks and thresholds are developed to allow for finding populations and taking 7 days to get there to spray hence being a "spray threshold".  So, in theory if we are half way through the stage that lasts two weeks by the time we would spray at the economic threshold of 1,000 aphids/plant (the actual threshold before we see economic loss) by the time we would spray we may be beyond treatment timing.

White Dwarf Aphids

For many who have not seen economic thresholds of soybean aphids in the past 10 years (the last time I have on a large scale) the field would have to be coated in aphids and honeydew they secrete.  These fields you walk out of with stiff pants, stained green and sticky.  In all likelihood we will not see this happen in 2018 outside of fields that have hot spots.  Another important note of why we have not seen these populations in the past 10 years is the abundance of beneficial insects like lady beetles/larvae, minute pirate bugs, lacewings, and many others.  I did some tillage a week ago on prevent plant ground with a grill filled with minute pirate bugs.  Lady beetles/larvae will often eat upwards of 100 aphids per day and continue feeding until soybean plant senescence at R7-8 or when they decide your house is more hospitable than a field.

Several White Dwarf Aphids among two regular soybean aphids

Walking a lot of fields in over seven counties in Wisconsin the past eleven years I have seen many things and had the chance to understand what will happen if we don't spray or we do spray at this late of a stage.  The most intersting thing to be a part of is trying to understand what white dwarf soybean aphids mean and do as we get later in the season.  The white dwarf stage of aphids is still an often debated stage with questions around what do they mean to the population and what their presence means when it comes to soybean feeding.  What we know is that white dwarf soybean aphids live half as long as regular aphids, reproduce less, and cause significantly less damage.  The unknowns are really what their presence means to soybean aphid populations.  It's thought that their appearance means the aphid population is noticing a reduction in the sugars in the plants.  In my experience once we see them the population is in a drastic decline and should be reevaluated in 3-5 days.  Often after this period of time we see the population disappear or go down significantly.

So, scouting during R5 is usually an easy decision for me in many fields.  If you see soybean aphids at early R5 colonizing the stems on some plants and conditions are favorable for increase by all means get the sprayer out and spray them ASAP.  Pay attention to pre harvest intervals on the insecticide of your choosing as that will be happening in 45 days or so.  If aphids are at 250 aphids/plant come back in 3-5 days to check to see if they are rising and make the spray determination that day.  If you are near or past R5.5 and notice the presence of white dwarf stage aphids check again in a few days but it's very likely you will be past spraying.  The only caveat here is if you are under drought stress and seeing soybeans flipping leaves in a majority of the field and are no where near R7, get the sprayer out and spray if you feel that there's a chance of a decent crop in that field and are at or near 250 aphids/plant.

How Important Is Updating Technology?

One of the biggest struggles I run into is advice on updating technology, or really why should you update technology if the current technology is doing what you want.  I'll be honest, the cost is usually not cheap by any means to update.  Current yield monitors and GPS units can run upwards of $10k and get you very similar data.  I often get comments on how new everything I use is, or how "fancy" it is but I think its essential to be running the latest technology in the job I do and on the farm.

I've spent hours trying to get old monitors or technology to do things it was never designed to do in the first place.  Installing aftermarket GPS's, making one brand talk to another, and even using a computer to process 4K video even though it wasn't meant to ever handle it.  In most cases, an investment of $1-2k would have been easier, but the cheaper option involved several hours of frustrating work.  A lot of this work, if it was charged on a per hour basis, would have equaled the cost of the plug and play equipment option and would have had less service calls and issues.

If you just want data for basic analysis or basic functionality by all means go with the cheapest option, but keep in mind what you may be doing 3-5 years down the road.  A lot of initial equipment doesn't work with the more advanced programs or hardware, so sometimes saving money up front will require you to purchase better equipment down the road capable of handling more advanced tasks and programs.  If make an entry level purchase, look at what the capabilities are if you ever plan to got with more advanced hardware or programs.

For those who are into using data and want better functionality, never go cheap.  The problem with most technology is that by the time you get the most advanced thing on the market in less than a year there is usually something better, newer, greater, etc.  While often costly at first, there are many programs for trading in for the newest equipment.  In many years of working with technology I've learned if you want the best, you're going to pay for it.  The key take away however, is that you get the best data, functionality, and it's often more user friendly.  If you can make the data pay the investment is almost always worth it.  I hate to use the "garbage in, garbage out" analogy, but it definitely applies to data.

My biggest push back is often the price of updating every year or so, but when it comes to using new tech I'm usually the first call to use my own hardware since it is the newest and has features/can do things that what is in our inventory can't do.  It's frustrating since those I try to convince to upgrade and often get shot down, are often the one's who want what I can do with the hardware I purchased personally to do what I needed that our old hardware would not do.  If you want to be the leader in technology, you're going to pay for it and realize that it's not a one time investment.  It takes yearly updating and spending time seeing what is on the market that may be better than what you are currently doing.  The best thing I have found is to follow some market leaders and see what they are testing and purchase what they end up buying.  It's also helpful to find the companies that are constantly growing and coming out with new products.  It's much easier to find a handful of companies who are at the top of hardware and software and getting their new products than buying from several and changing back and forth.

In summary, if you want good data or media bite the bullet and pay the price.  In the end it will be easier and you will be the tech leader who produces content/data that others drool over.  If you do it correctly, you'll get back what you invest and then some.

One Year, One Focus

I've attended a few meetings on the subject of "there's 1,000 variables that affect a crop" and it can be a little overwhelming if you think about what those 1,000 things are.  Instead I like to use a one year, once focus approach for those I work with. There are many reasons I do this; fixing every issue in one year is not cost effective, when you have several things to do it's hard to focus on many things, and making whole hog changes can be dangerous if not done in steps.

I recently attended a Winfield event where Director of Insights and Partnerships, Jim Hedges, said that "the things I didn't do were the things (on my farm) that cost me the most."  That quote is exactly the thing we need to focus on.  Often it's the little things like not applying an insecticide or changing a tillage practice we noticed was hurting us that will haunt us again in the future.  His talk was around using technology insights to have better in season decision making so you can take action earlier and with better chances of returns.  While the value of in season decisions can pay big returns it's often the little things we overlook.

Two years ago I noticed that we had a reduced plant stand compared to others with similar programs and we spent the entire summer working on why that was.  The root of the cause was somewhere between soil conditions at planting and the amount of in-furrow starter we were using (too much).
  We lowered our starter rate, and used a biological fungicide along with our planned in-furrow insecticide with the singular goal of increasing plant stand and uniformity in 2016.  That was it, just one goal for the year and it paid big dividends with a two-thousand plant increase that led to a 14 bushel farm average increase over 2015 all the while reducing our cost per bushel. 

Singular focuses have paid big dividends in other operations as well.  Another farm I work with was having a similar issue with plant stand a few years ago, but it was from residue in the seed trench and issues with closing.  We changed closing wheels to a slightly more aggressive closer one year, and saw a significant improvement but not what we wanted.  So, the following year we also added trash wheels ahead of the row units behind their zone-till coulters on their planter and finally had a plant stand we were happy with.

It is likely that these are not issues on every operation, but there are many things we can be doing different every year.  The key is to find someone willing to work with you to find these little things that you can improve on your operation and making a yearly focus on them to improve crop performance and profitability.  While we often focus on agronomy subjects things we can improve are not just limited to agronomy since marketing is often another aspect that we need to improve.

The options here are really limitless (back to the 1,000 variables thing), but they are fixable.  For me, I come up with one slogan for the year and write it down on my white board in my office at the top.  This year's slogan is what is important for me when we work with our customers and is my singular focus for 2018 "grasp input costs so we can react to markets, and execute our plan".  If you find a singular focus for your operation in 2018, own it and make it all you are about for this year.

What will go on YOUR white board?