12 / SEEDWORLD.COM JUNE 2019 field data that can be overlayed onto maps displaying soil types, plant population and prior yield history and tillage practices. The challenge now is to convert field data into reliable, real- time information. Not only do farmers want information when they need it, it has to be available for them to see it through the lens of their own farm. “In the next few years as precision farming becomes more mature, as it becomes main stream, it will become an essential part of farming. It will be making an impact of how farming deci- sions are made,” Renk says. “In five years, precision farming will be so important that if you are not using that technology, you could be losing 10 bushels per acre. Farmers are learning that to maintain their profitability they need incorporate precision farm- ing technology into their farming practices. Their margins are too thin for them to lose that yield advantage.” Plant breeders have long collected data to inform their selec- tion process. Now that data is being used to match the right hybrid to the customer’s right field. Technical agronomists are working together with plant breeders to develop new correla- tions to know what inputs a producer should apply throughout the growing season to get the most from each field. “Working with these farmers is about understanding the interplay between soil types, crop history, fertility, planting populations and seed genetics. Most producers are full force into precision agriculture, but they don’t know how to get the most value out of it,” says Tim Bratland, president of Legend Seeds. “This is where education come in. They have the data, but they don’t know how to use it. We are talking about getting the data accessible to all of us so we can come out and partner with them to get the resources they need to be able to use the data they have collected and apply it to making decisions for their farm.” The amount of data available to farmers, technical advisors and plant breeders is increasing at exponential rates. An increas- ingly complex challenge is to develop new correlations to trans- late data into useful information to enable a producer to best be able to respond to take the most advantage of each hybrid’s individual growth characteristics. “Planning for a 400 bpa may be a goal for some producers while for others harvesting 150 bpa in another field might be a record yield. The future will always be to get the most return from every acre. A big part of that is getting the best hybrid on each acre. Bringing these two together is becoming an increas- ingly technical process,” Bratland says. The Goal of Selling Seed Considering the amount of financial risk farmers are carrying to produce a crop, the intensity and importance of farmers place on every decision is understandable. The first decision determines what genetics to plant. The next decision is how to manage that crop after planting. The first decision a farmer makes in planning a crop is often what genetics to you plant. The next question is then how to manage that crop after planting. The old saying is when the planter leaves the field, 70% of a grain farmer’s decisions have already been made and the yield for that field is determined. There is very little a farmer can do after that to affect yield. This is changing the role of how seed sellers serve their cus- tomers. Up to this point farmers largely made seed selections on yields and genetics. Now the hybrids lacking high performance genetics have largely fallen out of the market. The old saying that when the planter leaves the field 70% of a grain farmer’s decisions have already been made is no less true today than it was 50 years ago. The yield for that field is deter- mined. There is little a farmer can do after a crop is planted to significantly affect yield. Mother nature can do things, but there is very little a farmer can do. This is changing the role of the seed seller to the farmer. Up to this point farmers have been expecting high performance genetics. Anymore, getting high level genetics is a given. “Our goal is not necessarily 400 bpa corn, but to bring the highest yielding, most agronomically sound and most consist- ent genetics that we can bring to our customers,” says Mike Kavanaugh, Agri Gold, St. Francisville, Ill. “Through our research, our goal is to know everything we can about our genetics and to help our farmers know everything they can about the genet- ics they are planting. How to place and manage them. We have Agriliant’s pre-commercial research trials that overlay our com- mercial testing. This allows us to test elite germplasm throughout our entire territory.” Digital techniques allow technical agronomists to analyze data and help us understand each hybrid. By itself, a dataset is just a bunch of numbers of little practical value. Interactive online platforms such as Agriliant’s proprietary Advantage Acres ena- bles farmers to digitally map their fields and then create a seed plan based on functional soil mapping. The soil maps take into account parameters including field topography, soil types, crop history and anticipated rainfall. The platform then pairs field data with individual hybrid characteristics to make hybrid selections. “Customers can tweak the plan – change populations and choose to plant different hybrids in a field based on both offen- sive and defensive criteria,” Kavanaugh says. “This is what goes into making a whole farm, field by field seed plan. We are helping each farmer take their crop to a higher level by planning for max- imum yield for each farm. It all starts with knowing your genet- ics. Our genetics are a diverse portfolio to avoid pigeon holing customers into one particular growing environment. A diverse portfolio is a challenge for our plant breeders, but it provides now opportunities for our customers.” SW “The future will always be to get the most return from every acre.” — Tim Bratland