Editor’s Note:
The No-Till Roundtable is a department we’re including in every issue of Conservation Tillage Guide. For each issue, we’ll send out an email asking for your thoughts and opinions on a topic related to no-till. If you have a topic you’d like to see addressed, email us.
A: Variable-rate fertilizer placement and auto-steer have enabled me to save 15% on my fertilizer costs. That’s 7% from auto-steer and 8% from variable-rate. My fertilizer costs for this past spring were $82 per acre, for a total savings of $12.30 per acre. Over a couple thousand acres the savings are $24,600! That helps pay for precision ag upgrades, while also reducing fertilizer runoff.
— Eric Odberg, Genesee, Idaho
A: Positive ROI is significant from an ultra-low disturbance seeding system using the CrossSlot drill. We barely leave a footprint on the ground, which helps retain residue and leaves an environment for building soil structure.
This tool allows us to seed cash crops, seed into cover crops and interseed.
Second, our sprayer application technology includes rate control, overlap control, mapping and portability. We started 15 years ago with a 10-station auto-boom on/off control. This gave us a huge ROI.
— Tracy Eriksen, St. John, Wash.
A: We’re now updating our planter from 8 to 16 rows with a nicely-equipped John Deere DB40 loaded with Precision Planting equipment. The planter has vSet vacuum meters, vDrive, hydraulic down force and the CleanSweep system on Martin floating row cleaners. We’re adding vApply HD and the 360 Bandit nitrogen (N) application unit to put N on each side of the row.
We have variable rate and row shutoff on each row for seed corn and liquid N. This is monitored and controlled by the new Gen3 20/20 display. I believe the precision equipment will save us 10-15% in fertilizer and seeding cost in corn. It allows us to better place corn and N in the field.
— Joel Armistead, Adairville, Ky.
A: Definitely our boom and section controls on the sprayers and planting equipment have increased profits by reducing overlapped crop inputs and preventing the yield impacts associated with over-application of inputs, e.g., seed and herbicides. The initial investment to go to nine-section control on our multi-section sprayer garnered annual returns greater than 50%. By fine tuning control to every nozzle, for example, the returns are less, but still 10-15%.
Second in ROI would be GPS-guided steering — mostly for the savings in machinery usage associated with the above-mentioned overlapping.
Third would be yield-mapping and variable rate application (VRA). Our VRA program depends almost exclusively upon yield maps, with benefits coming from both increased yields in good areas and reduced fertilizer usage in poorer areas of fields.
— Terry Kastens, Herndon, Kan.
A: RTK-level guidance on our tractor has helped us save in several ways, including reduced overlapped spraying, running over fewer plants when spraying and sidedressing, the ability to plant later into the evening and less operator fatigue.
Yield monitoring and mapping lets us to see the highs and lows in a field and gives us the ability to see what different inputs (chemicals, fertilizers, cover crops, etc.) are working.
— John Macauley, Mt. Morris, N.Y.
A: Row shut-offs have been by far the best ROI, both on our planter and sprayer. Auto-steer using enhanced WAAS guidance has been a great convenience. As we look to integrate other cropping operations, such as interseeding covers, strip-tilling to warm rows in the spring and
sidedressing, it will take on more importance than convenience.
We have used a drone for 2 years now. It’s great for scouting and as far as ROI is concerned, if we find even one problem, that would probably pay for itself.
— John Bruihler, Rushford, Minn.
A: On our farm the best ROI has been using GPS on the tractor for planting, field work and fertilizer and on the spraying equipment, too. The savings in time, consistency, and inputs has been our biggest benefit.
This led to yield monitoring and mapping while combining. This data produces the variable maps for changing the seed populations across our fields. Through these maps we have been able to variable rate our fertilizer, which has saved us product on our poorer ground and increased production on our better spots.
Also, changing our planter to one that does a more precise job of planting seed with row cleaners, precision placement of seed and automatic down force has really improved our yields in the last decade.
Where we were averaging around 178-180 bushels of corn per acre in 2012 — when we started using this technology. Now we’ve seen yields increase to as high 260-275 bushels 2 years ago. Last year we reached 240 bushels per acre.
— Al Voss, Lindina, Wis.
