Precision decisions: Field grain analysis

This blog article was originally published in the June issue of CPM. You can read the original article across pages 16-18 in the digital CPM June issue here or read the online article here.

Whether it be on paper or more recently digitally, data collection has long been a key part of everyday farming. But how can growers use what they have at their fingertips to make better decisions? 

There's an old adage in farming that says if you can't measure, you can't manage, and with the rise of precision technology and more efficient ways of capturing farm data, it seems the value of doing so has really come to fruition of late.

In an era where farmers are continually under pressure to get more from less, and extreme weather patterns throw even the most well-thought out plans into jeopardy, making decisions based on insight rather than guesswork is vital, explains Ed Downing, national crop nutrition manager at Frontier. "The challenge many growers face is assessing how successful they've been with their crop management and subsequent production

"A lot of the time, people base results on gut feelings. The problem with this is it's harder to be sure how things like the weather have impacted production, and there are much more accurate ways of assessing this."

Ed adds that in just one season, while individual fields might have been exposed to the same weather, growers could find significant differences in performance. He says this isn't just likely to be in terms of yield and production, but also from a nutritional perspective as there can be a tangible variation in how crops have taken up and utilised nutrients.

"By measuring this and using data to make decisions there will naturally be learnings that can be taken into the following year, retested and monitored to see if changes have made an impact."

Decision making 

 Questioning performance 

View from the field

Among the farmers who have benefited from the field grain analysis service is Hampshire arable farmer, Julian Gibbons.

Farming in partnership with his brother Andrew, Julian is cropping 567ha, with a typical rotation including two break crops, winter wheat, winter barley and spring barley.

"We've used YEN Nutrition for quite a few years. For me, looking closer at nutrition and the results which come from that is a really good way of sense checking what you've done and highlighting if perhaps you ought to tweak things," he says.

"Especially when fertiliser prices went sky high, it emphasised the importance of looking closely at what you're doing and if your strategy is effective or not."

To strengthen this, Julian has more recently been trialling the new NUE metric within the SOYL system. "We're already doing variable P,K and N through SOYL –– and have been for the past 15-20 years –– so this seemed a natural extension and expands what we're doing via YEN."

In terms of usability, Julian says the service is straightforward and requires minimal effort from his side of things. "We generally take samples from fields anyway as we harvest them, so it's just been a case of adding another sample bag to the collection; the lab only needs about 100g."

Looking at the results he's gleaned from the analysis, a few surprising deficiencies have been highlighted, notes Julian. "Interestingly, we're low on sulphur even though we apply bags of it. That makes one consider if there's something else to factor in, for example, is this due to application timing and the intense rainfall we've been having?

"Usually, we're putting it on with the first application, so are we losing too much of that now due to the weather?"

Julian adds that this has led him to look into the value of other sources of sulphur, such as polysulphate, as a better alternative which is released slower through the spring. "Or, there's the possibility of just applying little and often instead."

As well as this, Julian says he's found the field grain analysis to be a really useful way of trialling other technologies such as biostimulants. "We did this last year where we looked at different seed treatments –– including biostimulants –– and used the grain analysis data to really drill down to identify if and where we were seeing any benefits.

"Put simply, the technology allows you to look at what you've done and see if it's worked or not –– something which will no doubt be hugely important to growers going forward."

New innovations

Having such an accurate way of measuring the impact of inputs could also give growers confidence to trial new technologies too, believes Ed. "We're seeing products like endophytic bacteria come to the market that are designed to colonise the plant and fix atmospheric nitrogen and deliver it to the crop.

Obviously including this kind of innovation within the programme means growers gain an extra source of nitrogen and it's going to take time to understand how exactly these technologies will work on a commercial farm setting and how we can adjust all nitrogen sources as a result."

Using tools such as the new field analysis service from SOYL could help farmers do just that, he continues. "For example, growers could use it to look at how to manipulate nitrogen doses on top of new technologies and if/how that delivers into yield and grain.

"The more you're able to measure success, the more confident you can be with bringing technology into the programme."

Ed adds that Frontier is currently testing a product called Blotta Max which is designed to make phosphate more available to the crop. "We've had some success in terms of replicated trials and improved crop performance and yield," he says.

"When conducting grain analysis something we've continually picked up is low levels of phosphate in grain –– even when soil levels are deemed to be sufficient. We're still learning in terms of the level of confidence we place on these results because it's still early days compared with soil analysis. But in situations like this, bringing in a product like Blotta Max when you have evidence there's an issue with phosphate uptake, could make all the difference to overall crop performance."

Ed concludes that the service is a great starting point for growers at a challenging time for the industry. "The way we farm has and is going to continue to rapidly change. Precision feels like the direction of travel across the whole supply chain and while there may be apprehension that monitoring and measuring causes more work and cost for growers, it's actually a sure-fire way to ensure that efficiencies are being maximised which in the long run will only be a positive thing for both growers' time and the bottom line."

If you want to find out more about our field grain analysis service, please get in touch with your local Frontier advisor. Alternatively, you can get in touch or visit our website. 

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