5. Live! From Ag Mafia's Agronomy Conference

Special episode! If the audio sounds a little different, we are live from Ag Mafia's Agronomy Conference. We trade precision agriculture hot takes with a room full of farmers and agronomists, starting with what makes a zone map trustworthy and ending with what “precision” really means when equipment, software, and agronomy do not line up. We share real field stories from prairie potholes, yield map pitfalls, fertilizer blending headaches, and the surprisingly fun side of variable rate prescriptions. 

In this episode, you can find us...
• explaining GK Technology’s precision agriculture mapping tools and why field variability matters 
• breaking down the three pillars of precision ag: agronomy, equipment, and software 
• exploring why North Dakota adopts precision ag so fast, including field size, crop diversity, and zone sampling 
• discussing complex variable rate fertilizer blending when P and K maps do not match 
• debating what limits precision agriculture most: talent, equipment capability, controllers, and livestock knowledge gaps 
• arguing that a final zone map should make intuitive sense to the farmer, with the farmer as a key data layer 
• challenging the idea that precision ag always increases yield, focusing on ROI, realistic yield goals, and mineralization uncertainty 
• unpacking why yield maps are useful but not sufficient, including calibration issues and different causes of low yield 
• sharing favorite VRT projects, from IDC soybean maps to variable rate residual herbicides by pH and texture 

Mentioned in the episode: Ag Geek Speak Episode 1: Pioneering Precision Agriculture https://www.buzzsprout.com/2297340/episodes/14357348

More info on Ag Mafia and their upcoming Agronomy Conference: https://www.facebook.com/agmafiallc/ 

https://gktechinc.com/

Transcript

Welcome Back And Beer Picks

Sarah 0:00

And now it's time for a geek speak with GK Technologies, Sarah and Jodi.

Theme Music 0:10

In the fields again. I just can't wait to get in the fields again. The life I love is great and potato for my friend. And I can't wait to get in the fields again. No, I can't wait to get in the fields again.

Sarah 0:32

Should we introduce ourselves? Who are we, Jodi?

Jodi 0:35

Yeah, uh, I guess welcome back to Ag Geek Speak. I am Jodi Boe, and I'm an agronomist at GK Technology.

Sarah 0:42

And I am Sarah Hall Lovas. I am also an agronomist and software sales at GK Technology.

Jodi 0:49

And we run the Ag Geek Speak podcast. So for those of you that do listen and subscribe, thank you guys so much. If you haven't heard about us before, you can find us on any of your podcast platforms. But the goal of our podcast is to talk about all things precision agriculture.

Sarah 1:06

And, you know, one of my very favorite episodes that we ever had was with a gentleman by the name of Josh Stutrud. And so it was all about barley and raising good barley for beer. So I just thought that this would be the perfect setting to point that one out because we have some awesome options for a beer in the back of the room here.

Jodi 1:27

So absolutely. And another first. I've I've drink a beer during podcast recording, but never from the beginning. Um, so it's a pleasure to be drinking, I think it's called the VIP from uh downstairs. It's fantastic. It's pistachio stout. And what do you have got there, Sarah?

Sarah 1:45

I have the lime, the the lime lager, the Mexican lime lager, that's what it is. So it's very nice and light and has a little bit of a Mexican flair to it. I I'm dearly enjoying it. And um, cheers.

Jodi 1:57

Absolutely. So um, before we get into, we're gonna do a couple introductory things. I just want to lay out the format of what this looks like today as well. So we want your participation, we want your feedback, we want your questions. And so what this will look like, we'll talk a little bit more about where Sarah and I come from, who we work for, why we've got this podcast, and that'll become apparent. Um, but we're gonna do something called hot takes. And the whole purpose of this is to have discussions about different hot takes in precision ag and agronomy. And so you'll see the slides, but we'll give you the prompt and we hope that you will provide your input on what you think about these hot takes. So with that, please keep that in mind. And we do hope that you come back to your chairs and join us for that conversation.

What GK Technology Builds

Jodi 2:45

Before that, I'll talk a little bit about GK technology. So, who are we? If you guys have never heard us before, we are a software company based out of Halstead, Minnesota, so just up the road, a couple 30 miles. Um, but we've been a company in precision agriculture since about 1997, creating software for making zone maps, watershed management plans, drain tile management plans, um, basically allowing folks, crop consultants, farmers, to put together software and maps that account for the variability that exists in fields.

Sarah 3:18

Yeah, and it's a really cool company to work for. Um, actually, Darren Johnson, the original programmer, is actually one of the pioneers of precision agriculture and a discussion. He started creating maps. Boy, back in the 90s, he started. I actually have some maps on my computer that he did in 1998. So he's been he's been working with data and precision agriculture for a number of years.

Jodi 3:43

And it's it's a it's a really interesting origin story. And if you want to hear more about it, you can check out our backlist. Some of our first episodes cover the same topic um and go more in depth and and explore what it was like to work in precision agriculture in the 90s. I think it's a lot of uh brick computers and larger hard drives is a lot of it.

Sarah 4:03

Large larger uh larger computers with less memory.

Jodi 4:07

Yeah. Bigger floppy disks, less storage. Uh before we get into hot takes two, I do here, I'll let you introduce your own part, Sarah.

The Three Skills Precision Ag Needs

Sarah 4:17

Okay, well, one of the things that when we're working with an audience talking about precision agriculture, we always like to get people to think about what's important when you're thinking about precision agriculture. And if you think about when you're working with somebody who is a precision agriculture consultant or precision agriculture agronomist, they really need to be proficient in three separate arenas. They have to know the agronomy. Why would you variable rate, right? There is no point in variable rating anything or writing a prescription if you're putting the wrong rate or something down that has no agronomic uh relevancy. So you have to understand the agronomics behind all of your recommendations. You also have to understand how the equipment works, right? So if you can't figure out like how the equipment actually variable rates things, you your the prescriptions you write might not work well in that equipment. And lastly, you also have to understand a little something about computers. You have to understand the software and and what it takes to produce good um prescriptions. When you understand all three of those things and where all three of those things interact, you have a precision agriculture program. So a very good one. So when we're talking through precision agriculture today, I always like people to think about all three of those things from that perspective. I think that's really an important thing. And as I'm looking in the audience here, I am noticing that there are a number of people who are actively writing maps right now with precision agriculture. And so I don't know if anybody's got any thoughts on any of that or or anything, or have seen some places where things are successful with those three things interacting or not, or you know.

Jodi 5:54

Are any of you using precision ag maps on your farm to variable rate, or are you writing prescriptions right now uh for somebody that's doing variable rate or something similar in the field? You can raise your hand.

Sarah 6:07

Thank you. All right, look at their audience participation. Drink so around. Yay!

Why North Dakota Adopts Faster

Sarah 6:16

So can I ask a question for you guys? Yes, please do. So, one of the things that we see statistically is that North Dakota is twice as fast as adapting to precision egg as any other place in the US.

Jodi 6:28

What do you attribute that to? Why are we so good at it?

Sarah 6:31

Oh, that's a great question. To one of our podcasts from the city. I don't know. Maybe. Do you want to do I'll we might actually have some different ideas on it too, Jody. So why don't you go first and then and then we can um sometimes one of the things that Jody and I like to do is just talk about theories back and forth.

Jodi 6:47

So yeah, that's a really good question. And you know, I think we are in a unique situation here in North Dakota compared to Illinois, Indiana, and that A, we've got very diverse cropping systems, right? So for the most part, outside of Southeast North Dakota, we're dealing outside of corn and soybeans. And so I feel like there is demand, more demand to think about fertility on maybe a yearly basis instead of every other year, like with corn and soybeans. The same thing, or thinking about that similarly, is that, you know, as we move from the eastern side of the state to the western side of the state, and of course this applies to South Dakota too, things get drier. And so farmers are managing larger acres and larger amounts of acres as they move west. And so I think just with that farm size and also the variability that comes with that, that doesn't come from past fertilizer applications, but variability that comes from the landscape itself, it just makes intuitive sense to manage fields on a zone basis versus looking at um grids or just doing a composite across the field to make fertilizer plants. So I think that's a huge one, Sarah.

Sarah 7:51

Well, I I think you answered the question really well. And so I'm actually gonna take this down like a little bit of a separate little rabbit hole here. Trust me, that's that's like our specialty. But it's interesting when you think about how precision agriculture has come about in specifically like the cornbelt states like Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, and how that looks and feels different than in the wheat states like North Dakota. Um, because in the cornbelt states, they have a lot of planters. And so when you think about precision agriculture, there's a lot of conversation about variable rate seeding with your planter. And so when you come to North Dakota, and as you move west through North Dakota, we run into a lot of places where there are less and less planters and more and more air seeders. And it's interesting how a lot of the farmers really want to do their own application. And so I think the way that North Dakota agriculture has adopted precision agriculture is actually different than the cornbelt states. You know, and we can we can attribute even some other things that are a little bit different. You know, the cornbelt states they do a lot more grid sampling than we do here. We do more zone sampling. And again, that that probably has to do with field size. I mean, if you go to some of those cornbelt states, the field size themselves is going to be a lot smaller. It's a lot different soil grid sampling a 50-acre field than a 500-acre field.

Jodi 9:19

Yes, and and like what Dr. Goose talked about earlier, thinking when he asked the or had the question posed to him of what do you think about the interaction of phosphorus and zinc? And what that made me think of right away is that, okay, when you move farther east, these fields in Illinois and Indiana, these have they have these long histories of manure application. And so, yeah, when we're looking at, and we'll I'll just say this from an Olsen perspective, even though they might be doing bray out there for phosphorus, like they're gonna come back with Olson phosphorus tests of like 80, 90, 100, way higher than what we're seeing there. So, like that, when you think about why that is, you know, if they've been applying fertilizer in Illinois, Indiana for the last 200 years, whether that be in the form of manure or phosphorus or map, those other forms, that you're gonna mask that field variability that may have existed there that we we just have not had the time to mask with our own applications of of fertilizer or other things here in North Dakota. Um, okay. Oh,

Variable Rate Blends And Real Limits

Jodi 10:16

Kyle, do you have a question too?

unknown 10:17

Yeah, I got questions for you.

Sarah 10:19

You always have questions. I'm gonna let Sarah answer this because I know I think we should each answer that. Okay, the question is what is the most um unique product that's been applied? The most unique product that's been uh applied, variable rate, and what is what is the most number of products to go down in an application?

Jodi 10:41

Mine's very simple. Like I deal with a lot of one fertilizer blend products and like maybe a VRT seed prescription. I'm gonna let you take over the complicated one, Sarah. Because I know we talk about these and I know you see some stuff.

Sarah 10:54

So um fertilizer blending, it's really an interesting scenario when you're trying to variable rate. And you know, it's interesting because when you're getting back your soil test data and you're creating your nutrient requirement maps on a variable rate application, sometimes um those variable rate maps for each nutrient don't match up with the same geographical distribution. Okay, so in other words, your correlation between those maps can be poor. And what's really interesting is when, for example, you get back your phosphorus and your potassium soil sample results, and those soil sample results across your zones are almost inverse. I see laughs because you know exactly what I'm talking about right there. You felt it and you're like, and then of course, the farmer or the the custom applicator, they want it all to fit into one bin. And so you have to figure out how to make these things blend, you know, and and so that's probably the most complicated thing. I do have one customer that I work with that he's strip tilling, and so and it's a single-bin strip-tiller. He definitely has need to make sure that he's managing his phosphorus and potassium very well. He also has a significant amount of liquid application capabilities with his planter that are laid out like about four inches out, so he can actually put some decent nitrogen rate and fertilizer rates on as liquid. And then he also will side dress and he has some irrigated land and he will also fertigate. And then we're also variable rating the seed. So the most complicated thing that I've done so far is come up with a single bin PK recommendation where I'm driving that blend in there off of either the P or the K. Then I'm trying to make up the nitrogen balance on the side dress and the planter nitrogen applications. So, Doc Goose, I see you sitting out there. Back in the day when you taught us how to blend fertilizer by hand and run all those calculations in your class. I live that dream every day, and I appreciate that knowledge like you wouldn't believe.

Jodi 13:17

It really does come in handy. And I guess you know what? Can I oh, I'll let I'll let Dr. Goose say something. Say your piece.

Sarah 13:26

Are you talking? Okay, so the question is we we brought up the Venn diagram. Dr. Goose wanted us to look at the Venn diagram that we just talked about at the beginning of the podcast. And of the three components equipment engineering, agronomic knowledge, and software knowledge, which one is the most limiting? So are you asking for the industry wide or us personally?

Jodi 13:49

So this is probably a cop-out answer, but I really do believe the biggest limiting factor in here is finding enough people that know all three. And right, that's that's kind of finding finding enough people that know all three of these areas and can put it together, right? Because like what Sarah usually goes does do when she talks about this slide is that okay, you can know a lot about the equipment side and you can know a lot about the agronomy, but if you don't know how to actually write that prescription so that it works inside of a machine, what's the point? Sure, you can have a fancy map, but if the computer, like the controller in the planter can't read it, what's the point, right? And I I really do think that because the the the areas themselves, like they're very separate and they're very different. And so it's difficult to train people extremely well. It's a hard thing to get confident and get knowledgeable on all three of them. I honestly think that's the limit. Because I I look at the software side, and really the sky's the limit in terms of like ADMS and what you can do. If you have an idea, you can mix it together and you can apply it. But you have to know what are the limitations of the equipment. Like with blending a four-way fertilizer blend, like, all right, we are limited not only to the bottom side of how the like the least amount of fertilizer you can apply per acre, but also that machine has an upper limit, right? So we're gonna cut off maybe by a thousand pounds, or other equipment has a different limitation. But those are little details that are hard for a person to know. So I don't know, that's my opinion, is that it's it's kind of the the technicians that can apply all three of them together on farm and make it work.

Sarah 15:28

And I I agree that I think as an industry on a whole, we are very limited on finding people that are strong in all three of these arenas. That is it is something that is so critical for people to understand. We really need strong agronomists that can that can actually make maps and that can understand how the equipment works. But I'm gonna go into just a slightly different angle on this. I do think that one of the major limiting factors for precision agriculture right now is believe it or not, and I don't see too many equipment people here, but I think the equipment. And the reason I'm saying that, because the equipment has come so far. Okay, the equipment has come so far. But when you start thinking about how we're thinking about precision agriculture from the equipment standpoint, okay, you have a 45-foot head on your combine, and you are gonna get one data point at that 45-foot head every so many seconds. Okay, so that means the precision on that it's every 45 feet, right? So do you wanna be more precise than that? And we have planters that should be able to variable rate every single row, but you can't get a prescription to go through the controller. I can write a prescription that would do that, but we can't get a prescription that can actually go into a controller to variable rate every single row. It's gonna be by a section. So I think you know, we need to ask ourselves how precise do we want to be with precision and what are the equipment um limitations to that? And that equipment limitation might actually be at the equipment itself, or it might be at the controller within that piece of equipment. So Bridget's comment is that our most limiting factor right now is our knowledge on livestock. And I would certainly say that there's some validity to that. I think going forward, what we're gonna find is precision agriculture is gonna have two very definite tracks: one for livestock and one for agronomy. The truth of the matter is that grid sampling is older than GPS. I mean, way older than GPS. I mean, they were doing that yeah, in the 1920s in Illinois. So the idea of variable rating Lyme and other products, it's been around for a while. But the idea of doing precision agriculture in livestock, that is new and it is becoming a real thing. It's very exciting when we start thinking about you know the tags that they can wear, the electronic tags and all of those kinds of things. And I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I know anything about livestock because my contribution is my ability to eat a good steak. Um, and the only thing better than that is a bacon wrap steak. But um I but I do think we're gonna see, and this is just a prediction and an opinion, but I think we will see into the future a definite track for agronomy and a definite track for livestock. And I would definitely say that the livestock knowledge is probably the most limiting at this point.

Jodi 18:37

Yep. Yeah, and I mean like it's a it's a different pipeline for both, right? Like where with livestock, you those cows are your assets, right? And they're very expensive, each one of them. Whereas like just the the size of what you're what you're doing is so different that the pipeline of thinking about variable rate or like any sort of precision ag in a farm looks very different from what that looks like on the livestock side. But still, I think that's important to bring up.

Hot Take: Zone Maps Must Make Sense

Jodi 19:06

Okay, so with that, let's move on to hot takes, and then yeah, and then we can we'll we'll take questions after that too. So again, what what what the purpose of this is is we're gonna put on a quote unquote controversial statement, and we'd like to hear your guys'. Yeah, as controversial as we can be. Okay, so this first one, and Sarah, do you want to read it because you're looking at it? Okay, you want me to read it? Yeah, okay.

Sarah 19:35

A final zone map for a farmer should make intuitive sense to the farmer. Does that make sense? What do you what do you think? When you put a zone map in front of a farmer, should it make sense?

Jodi 19:48

I see the one person that I do know is absolutely a farmer in this group is nodding his head. Okay. I you know, I'll just I'll give an example. I've worked or like walked through different people putting together zone maps, and maybe sometimes it's a it's a consultant or it's a it's a farmer, but some of the first times when they're putting zone maps or building zone maps together, they might pull in an image that has a cloud in it, and they don't realize it until the final step that that cloud is having a huge impact on that map. And so when you're just learning and putting these maps together, sometimes you overlook some things that when you lay it over like a 3D map or like show it to the farmer, that red area right in the middle that doesn't make any sense. What's going on here? That doesn't reflect the actual crop that's going there. So it's important when those maps get to the farmers that they make sense because mistakes can happen. Further, like it's important that there's a method that's being used that reflects the yield potential or like the growth potential of that field. So keep that in mind if you're a farmer, it should be making sense to you when they when you get those back.

Sarah 20:58

Yeah, I actually think the farmer themselves is a really important data layer. I like to make sure that the farmers look at the maps that I make. Let's be real, these farmers have been over these fields how many times in their lifetime? How many times per year? And so it's just really important that when the farmer looks at it, they should be able to say, yeah, that's my field.

Jodi 21:23

Okay, that was a little vanilla. Should we move on to the next one? Or any other thoughts from the crowd before we move on to the next one? All right, next one.

Hot Take: Precision Ag Always Yields More

Jodi 21:31

We always have better yields with when we're implementing precision ag in a field.

Sarah 21:36

True or false? Do you think we always have better yields with precision agriculture?

Jodi 21:41

I see some head nods. Does anybody want to explain that or like go in further depth as to why or why not that is? Yeah, so so from the crowd, if somebody is going from doing a flat rate and a really high flat rate across the field, if you if we do a VRT, we're probably gonna pull back in those areas in terms of further. Fertilizer where there isn't that much yield potential, and maybe we see yields say the same instead of improving for that field after we implement VRT and save some fertilizer costs.

Sarah 22:10

If you have a salt area and that salt area has never raised wheat more than 10 bushels, what is gonna change that salt area to make it produce any more than 10 bushels? I could tell you agronomically, my precision egg isn't gonna change it. But what I can do is save you some fertilizer. Greg. Yeah, so the comment on that one is that if you end up with a different year, a different environment, then things will flip. And you know what? We see that all the time. And honestly, um, working with farmers in precision agriculture, I think sometimes that's one of the really big things that's a challenge. You know, prairie pothole country. We deal with that all the time. And some years you can farm through those prairie potholes, and some years you can't. And some years those hilltops are gonna be really good. Um, I'm thinking about like 2019 and um even 2020 when it was so wet, those droughty hilltops were probably a little bit better, and those potholes were not. But then you get to 2021, and man, that drought of 2021, that was the year to make sure those potholes got planted.

Jodi 23:27

I I was just having a conversation with the grower this week, and he's like, all right, this spot, it only it only grows something, or like it grows something every nine out of ten years. It's otherwise like it's wet. But like I want to make sure, even though like the the imagery zones are showing that it's like maybe a zone three or a middle zone, I want to treat that as a dark green zone because sure, if uh if we get a really wet year, it's probably gonna drown and I'm gonna lose that investment. But other years, I can still plant there and I really like that. So it's it's important to think about that, right? How the environment can influence it and how we can kind of manage some of those things moving forward.

Sarah 24:04

And what's interesting about potholes, potholes can be so interesting and character building all at the same time. Um, so what's really interesting about potholes is if you were to soil sample those separately, so often you find that there's so many nutrients out there that, yeah, that one year that you get across it, a lot of times you end up with really big yields. But because there's been so many years where nothing is grown out there and probably had nutrients applied, there it's so rich in nutrients to get that high yield in that pothole. A lot of times you don't have to do that. Now, you never know that for sure until you soil sample. Again, it's always good to soil sample so you got that basis of knowing what's going on. Rock and roll, Mr. Rock and Roll, you're you're chomping at the bit there. What do you got?

Speaker 3 24:54

I am chomping at the bit. Okay, so this isn't this backs up what Greg was just saying. So I just got an email from a client that we zone sample for last year, right? They're up in that special area of North Dakota called zone. Okay, because they're special.

Sarah 25:11

The special area. That's how Dave Francis thing, right?

Speaker 3 25:16

So in 24, the songs that we did, he's like, we're gonna raise the yield phones. Because I don't think we've reached our potential. Okay. And then in 25, it was dry. We had moisture early and it dried up. And the organic matter just kept given and given and given. And so we had logic and fire, logic and meat. So we all we did was move five push-off in our zones, on our high zones.

unknown 25:49

That was too much.

Sarah 25:53

So the go back down.

Speaker 3 25:57

So the bottom line is they think it needs to listen to his agronomies.

Sarah 26:02

So Jason's comment, rock and roll uh agronomy's comment there is that um he had a client of his that really wanted to push the yield goals because he didn't think he'd reach that top yield goal. Um and then what happened is he ran into that one good year and he ended up with a lot of lodging. This is where it's important to understand when to stop putting on additional fertilizer and when um when you need to let the mineralization do its thing. And here's the thing you can't predict mineralization. You cannot predict mineralization. If we could predict mineralization, um, whoever can predict mineralization, yeah, we would be doing another. We would be doing something else. We we would be very rich. Um, anyway, but if you can set realistic yield goals across your zones, that's more important than anything. If if you have a low-producing zone and you're only gonna get 10 bushels on average out of that low-producing zone, use that as your yield goal. Don't push it, you're not limiting your yield. You've never seen anything out there more than 10 bushels on average. You don't need to fertilize for more than that. If you have a zone where on average you're getting 70 bushels of wheat, use that as your average. If it's one of those years where you're gonna get more bushels, it'll be there. But the environment will take over and the mineralization will be will be there and it will take over.

Jodi 27:40

And that was and I think 2026 or 2025 was a really unique year, at least in this geography. And I think Carrie, nod your head if this is correct, even in South Dakota, you guys saw more residual nitrogen than normal this past year. And that just comes down to really good moisture levels, really hot conditions going late into the fall. And that checks out, you know, with AgVise's nitrogen summary, they were seeing way more nitrogen than normal after this year. Um, but could we have known that at the beginning of 2025? Absolutely not. That's just something that we don't have the ability to predict. It's like our weathermen aren't always the best at predicting weather, that's just how it goes.

Sarah 28:21

Absolutely. That was really fun. So set realistic yield goals. You gotta love it.

Hot Take: Yield Maps Are Enough

Jodi 28:28

Speaking of yield, we've got another hot take. Yield maps are the only way to create management zones.

Sarah 28:35

True or false. Oh, thank you, Dr. Goose. Yield maps are not the only way to make zones.

Jodi 28:43

And and let me be clear, like I know some folks that use yield goals or like yield maps for the way that they make zones, and that is just fine. They look good, especially for folks, especially farmers that know their fields. They'll use maybe one year out of every five. Yes, exactly. If you've got a good yield map, it can be awesome to build yield yield or zone maps off of.

Sarah 29:05

I'll I'll tell you what, um, you know, this podcast is not a video podcast, so nobody will be able to see this on the recording. And the people in the back of the room are too busy drinking beer, not paying attention, so don't worry about it. But who in here thinks yield maps are their preferred way of making zones? If you had a choice of any data layer, would that be your first choice to make zones from? Raise your hand if you could right now, and and just with what you do right now, are you making your zone maps with yield? Okay, we got we got we got a couple. We got a couple. That's good. If you have good yield data, there is nothing better. But what I've run into a lot is where you've got multiple combines in the field and they're not calibrated well, and then when you bring that yield data in and you stitch it together, you don't actually see the variability of the field, but rather you see the variability of the calibration differences between the combines. That's not what we want to bring out in our zones. And the time, effort, and energy that it takes to fix that, well, I'm at a point where I will do it, but I'm certainly going to charge the farmer for it too.

Jodi 30:19

And okay, and then that too, there's there's other things that we that I think about when using yield maps as well. Um, and you guys in the crowd, are there other reasons you can think of that sometimes yield maps or like a say a certain year of a yield map would be something that you don't use when you're making your zone maps? Yep. So so Dr. Goose said, you know, if you've got two, like let's think about like a zone map where like red is your worst zone, right? And in that red zone, you could have bad yielding areas for multiple reasons. You could have a hilltop and a drowned out spot or a salty spot. They're all colored red, but you're not gonna manage them the same because they're they're different.

Sarah 30:57

Enter in the mod zone.

Jodi 31:00

Yes. And so again, Sarah and I have talked about this as well on other episodes, but it's really important to know why you're seeing those differences or why yield is doing a certain thing in a certain area. And I I will say that does apply to looking at imagery as well. It's important to know, okay, why do I am I gonna use a 2021 layer when I've only got maybe four or five other years? I'll maybe consider not using that 2021 year if I don't want the variability of the hilltops to show so much because that was a really dry year.

Sarah 31:31

But yeah, we'll mod that out so that you end up having, you know, they can be the same, you know, they probably come in looking like they're the same productivity level with a red zone, but then you you just change one because you need to manage it differently. You need to soil sample it separately. Um in those scenarios, you're gonna have different different sample results and everything.

Jodi 31:53

Anyways, so another thing with yield data too. Um, do any of you deal with white mold and your beans or your sunflowers or your other crops? Yeah. And so one thing so and does anybody deal with frost? Yeah. So exactly. And so one thing is when you're dealing with data that's collected during the growing season versus at the end of the yield with like a yield data. If you're collecting data that's telling you about the growth potential of the field, that's gonna be more consistent and have less reasons why it's changing versus at the end of the year, right? Like there's a lot of things that happen between the middle of the season and the end of the season where yield can be affected by a lot of things besides just the growth potential of that soil that's there. And so we want that zone map to represent that yield potential, how much potential that crop can have versus what actually ended up going in the combine. It's important, do not get me wrong, again, like Sarah and I've mentioned, there are so many, there are years where the yield data is just gold. Um, but sometimes, especially with our shorter growing season and weird crops, yield data can present some unique challenges.

The Most Fun Things To Variable Rate

Sarah 33:05

So let's ask a quick question. What is what is the most fun thing that you've ever variable rated? Um, that one was actually a Kelly project right there. Um, the one of the owners of the company helped make the uh the world's largest corn maize. It was actually a really big boundary and it was very intense. And it was a full quarter of corn maze. That was crazy.

Jodi 33:29

So when we say the sky is limited in in terms of like what you can variable rate, the sky is the limit.

Sarah 33:35

Umically, what was the most fun thing that you've ever variable rated? I I have a good one.

Jodi 33:41

Honestly, I really like making soybean IDC maps.

Sarah 33:44

Yeah, that's those are those are those are really fun.

Jodi 33:47

You you're looking for specific soybean years and then making the maps off of that, and then thinking about okay, how do I want to vary not only the soybean rate, but apply the product versus not apply the product. I think that's fun.

Sarah 33:59

Um I think one of the most fun things that I've had ever had the opportunity to participate in helping figure out how to variable rate is uh residual herbicides based on soil pH and soil texture. So, and that's an actual and that that's a that's an oaky deal there, a Kyle Oakie, father of the twins um deal. And you know, he actually came up with the idea and it makes perfect sense. You have the recipe rate on the label for what's acceptable for your soil pH and your and your your texture, so you just use that information, and then from that you make almost like a two-zone map, maybe a three-zone, depending upon how big the field is, and you can variable rate those residual herbicides. Works great, especially uh because you can make sure that you've got good efficacy on your on your herbicides in season, hopefully cuts down on any carryover issues that you might have going forward, and should also cut down on injury issues in season. Big deal for craps like um like lentils. If you've got lentils in your rotation that are super sensitive and they just like look at stuff and die. Um, or or um like if you've got sugar beets in your rotation, so it's a that's really fun.

Jodi 35:15

Uh Jason, do you have a fun thing that you VRT'd?

Speaker 3 35:18

Uh so much fun is that is when there's an extra lots of one that can feel and so there's like an extra area in the field that is up, and then part of the fun that is some of them are really hard to sample. So are you gonna get the sample? So that's an additional scamp. It's a challenge.

Sarah 35:58

You're you're welcome. I delineated that for you very well. Um, but but the question is, you know, how if if you get four zones and you get that mod area in there, are you gonna actually be able to get a good soil sample? And what's really neat when you pull that soil sample in the different zones is to actually take a look at what the soil looks like in those different zones. Honestly, I'll I'll be real. I didn't really enjoy soil sampling until I started zone sampling. When I started zone sampling and I could really see the differences as the cores came up, it was so much fun. It's just amazing. And and I don't have, I don't get to see like nearly the color differences that they do in other places because I'm in the Red River Valley. But boy, you take a look at some of the pictures that like Kyle Oki posts online um of the different zones that he's in and the color differences and the the productivity differences are just amazing. And it is it is really fun to see. Jason, was one of those areas like where you were driving by and you could see all the kosher that was growing out of, or like you could see the lines of the different So Rock and Roll's comment is that idea that you get different zones out there and your map, and that even though they're he he's he's making the comment that he's got a grower that he works with that you know the grower thinks red is bad and green is going is really good, but that isn't always the case. Sometimes it's just the difference.

unknown 37:28

Okay.

Sarah 37:29

So anyway, that was a really fun com comment, and it and it's true. And I actually worked with a grower that was like that too. Uh he had this one field, had a ridge through it, it would get droughty. Um, it was it was red in that area, but if it rained, the clay on the edges was gonna drown out, and the ridge in the middle was gonna be great. And if it was a drought, it was gonna be completely the opposite. So I had the zones beautifully made, and I and I told the guy, what do you think the weather's gonna be and how would you like this managed this year? Because it could be a completely opposite depending upon what he thought the weather would be like that year. It was very

Big Takeaways And How To Get Help

Sarah 38:04

fun.

Jodi 38:04

So what our goal with these different hot takes was to talk about some of the agronomy behind the precision ag concepts that are out here. Hopefully, I think I've taken this away that again we can have the nicest precision ag equipment out there, which in 2026, what we can do to variable rate things and sense things in field is incredible. But I still think back to okay, all this technology, it's only going to be as good as the agronomy that's put behind it. Um, and cool, you can have the nicest equipment, but if you don't know why you're applying something or what you're trying to accomplish with it, it's a really expensive piece of equipment or a fun thing that you're playing with, but not really making any difference.

Sarah 38:56

And beyond that, I think it's also important to remember that if if you're out there and you're thinking about something, you have an idea with precision agriculture and you don't know how to tackle it, call someone up. Call up someone who is who does precision egg um consulting and ask some questions. Some of the most fun things that I've had the opportunity to do are when people have called me up and said, I've got this idea. And um, and we work together and we try to bring their idea to life. And it's just an it's a brand new thing that has never been thought of, and it's it's fun. That's how the residual herbicide concept got started. So be creative and have fun with it because it is fun, and we just have there the future is so bright with precision agriculture, and it is just an amazing space to be in right now. Thank you, Ag Mafia, for having us today. This was great. Thank you for the great audience participation. This was fun. And with that, at GK Technology, we have a map and an app for that.

Theme Music 40:04

Oh, I can't wait to get in these again.