Jim Straeter and Spud Armstrong recently spoke at the Precision Farming Dealer Summit in Indianapolis on our precision farming company, Ag Technologies. Jim and Spud spoke about the positives of having the precision farming company as a separate entity, the benefits of cross-selling Precision Land Mangement (PLM) equipment, service, and hardware, and the logistics behind having a standalone precision company.
Spud Armstrong
Jim Straeter (left) and Spud Armstrong (right)
Jim Straeter
Call 574-224-TECH or stop in at our Ag Technologies location in Rochester, IN and let us speak with you about what our PLM products and services can do to boost profitability on your operation!
Time is running out for you to take advantage of special year-end tax deductions. Ask your tax advisor about the Section 179 expense deduction and first year 50% bonus depreciation. In order to qualify for the Section 179 Deduction, equipment must be purchased, financed or leased and put into service by December 31, 2015.
The staff at New Holland Greentown worked together on putting a light display together on a New Holland T5 tractor. The display is located at the Greentown Fairgrounds as part of their Christmas light display:
We’re proud to hear that the Clauson family, a loyal customer of ours for decades, was announced by Beck’s Hybrids and Indiana AgriNews as the Indiana Farm Family of the year for 2016. We congratulate the Clauson family for their hard-earned success on the farm, and all they do through programs such as FFA and 4-H to be outstanding representatives of their community. We encourage you to click here to read the full article in AgriNews, and check out this video about the family:
Get the perfect gift for your loved one this year at Rodkey New Holland!
Stop in December 5 to come see Santa Claus and take advantage of our special promotion. As a gift from us to our loyal customers all toys, clothes and merchandise will be 20% off for Saturday only!
We’ve known for a long time that cattle like Cornrower stover because it doesn’t contain dirt and it is chopped up, making it much easier to ingest and chew. An endorsement of Cornrower stover from the steers that had gotten into a corn field that was being harvested came recently. After unloading grain and heading back to the corn being harvested, we saw steers eating the stover in the windrows – preferring that to the grain on the stalk, unharvested stover and grass that was immediately available.
Harvesting stover the right way makes a ‘waste’ commodity a valuable feed. Photos are shown above of the steers eating an evening meal, along with video from inside the cab and field level here:
For more information on the Cornrower and its performance and potential, call us at 574-223-2714!
From spring to harvest, you can utilize drones to help make sure you are making data-driven decisions on your farming operation to help generate the best possible yields on your fields. Here are a couple of examples we have used the Precision Drone Pacesetter 2 to accomplish that:
Precise Yield Estimations
The Pacesetter 2 is also a great tool to help you market your crop and create a strategic game plan long before harvest. Simply fly your fields and create an NDVI geo-referenced crop health map so you can identify healthy, moderate, and struggling areas of your fields. These values are represented in the NDVI image as colors of green, yellow, and orange/red using the Precision Vision software that comes with the Pacesetter 2 package. With that NDVI map you created, pick a GPS point that represents each color of the map and conduct a physical yield check in the field for those spots. Import this NDVI map into any farm software of your choice to determine the percentage of healthy, moderate, and struggling crop in your fields.
Here are two pins of GPS points where yield estimations were taken based off of the NDVI map created by the drone.
Using the yield check estimates gathered in the field and the percentage of each crop health color derived from the NDVI map, you can determine what type of average yield to expect per field. Here is the actual data from the physical yield check where we came within 0.5% of what the actual yield monitor showed 2 months prior to harvest: 2015 Pacesetter Drone Yield Estimation
What the Naked Eye Can’t See
The Pacesetter can also help you find many issues in your fields throughout the growing season, such as the one in this NDVI map, where the tank ran out of anhydrous before the end row was reached.
The Pacesetter helps you identify problems in your fields. Here is an actual example of an NDVI image shown from the Pacesetter software indicating where the tank ran out of anhydrous during side-dress application.
The red arrow shows where corn was ran over and knocked down at the field entrance when NH3 nitrogen was being side-dressed. Also visible, is the variation of soil types and how they are affecting crop health. The orange areas of this field show you where the sandy soil is causing the corn plants to struggle more than the rest of the field. The Pacesetter does not only let you see the health of your crops, but can also be used to help you:
Create variable rate fertilizer and/or seeding maps using any major farm software
Find replant opportunities and determine how many acres are affected
Determine amount of crop damage for crop insurance purposes
Find planter and/or applicator malfunctions
Monitor specialty crops and/or seed variety test plots
Spot where weed pressures are hurting crop health
Locate disease and/or insect pressures
If you would like additional information about the Pacesetter 2 drone and how this innovative product can help you make better management decisions during the next growing season, call Eli Fred at 574-224-8324 today!
Unverferth introduced a new applicator bar at the FPS this year. The NutriMax applicator helps ensure optimum crop performance through the precise placement of nutrients when most needed by the plants during periods of high growth. Check out this link along with the video for more information on the toolbar:
