PRO Co-op Precision Farming
Questions? Contact: Luke Dighans Agronomy Manager406-487-2742
Farm the zone, not the field
There will probably come a day when “precision farming” will simply be called farming. Focusing your efforts on production zones within your fields helps minimize input costs in lower-producing zones, while maximizing production in higher-producing zones. Some of the technology, like satellite imagery, field-mapping and variable rate fertilizer application, may seem complicated at first, but your PRO Co-op precision ag team will help you make sense of it all. Once you start farming by the zone, we’ve found that for most growers, there’s no looking back.
PRO Co-op Precision Farming
The goal of PRO Co-op’s Precision Farming program is to harness the power of GPS/GIS and the incredible equipment used in modern farming to maximize your yield potential on each acre. The combination of technology and local agronomic expertise results in a precision program that cannot be replicated.
Precision farming takes place all season. It can be as simple as using a variable rate prescription for fertilizer that redistributes more of the nutrients you apply to your best ground. It can also be part of a season-long precision program that includes zone soil testing, zone tissue testing, variable rate fertilizer application, planned scouting events, and improved analysis of your yield data to manage the potential of your fields one acre at a time
Luke Dighans
Agronomy Manager
Variable Rate Application
Variable rate fertilizer application allows growers to “redistribute” crop nutrients across the field based on zones that correspond with realistic potential of each acre. Higher rates are placed in areas with better soil health, organic matter, water holding capacity, and more. Lesser rates are placed in areas with poorer quality soils or historical yields.
PRO Co-op develops variable rate fertilizer prescriptions that can be applied by growers through air drills, planters and sprayers, or through our custom application equipment. Prescriptions are typically based off of NDVI satellite images, but can also be developed from yield data or soil characteristics (or a combination of all of these).
The final step to implementing a prescription is ensuring our maps are compatible with your equipment, which is also part of our job.
In-Season Crop Imagery
PRO Co-op works with the R7® tool developed by Winfield® United on strategies like in-season field monitoring and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which is a method of determining crop health by measuring the index of plant “greenness” or photosynthetic activity. Imagery can be used to determine if your fields are trending up or down relative to similar fields, to improve crop scouting efficiency, or as the basis for tissue testing and variable rate fertilizer application.