Bushels pay the bills for row crop farmers and the best way to get the most bushels is by having a good plan. So says Jennifer Wood, an Innovation Specialist at BASF who works one on one with farmers to develop those plans. And with low prices for those bushels, she told HAT you need to have a plan this year for sure.
“This year is going to be especially important to have a solid plan in place. Anytime commodities have trended lower the tendency for some growers is to close that check book and not spend as much money as they have in the past, but the growers I work with I continue to encourage that in a year when commodities are down we really need to focus on maximizing our yield, because bushels pay the bills, and the more bushels we have the less our cost of production per acre is.”
What should you plan for, before even planting?
“From a weed perspective, a weed resistance management plan to make sure we aren’t exacerbating any problems that we’ve had. From a fungicide and plant health standpoint, what are our plans there? Are we going to do Headline in furrow followed by a tassel treatment? And then the other important thing in my mind is sticking to that plan. It’s really easy to make changes in-season based off of how the crop looks and that sort of thing, but having a plan early really helps you utilize and maximize your yield on those acres.”
BASF Innovation Specialists like Wood have been around for about 3 years. They are not salesmen, they’re just on the farm to learn all about the operation and help farmers develop and execute their plans.
“We can kind of take a step back and be sort of a third party and look at what they’re doing,” Wood explained. “Then I’ll actually put a recommendation sheet together for growers that is kind of an advanced acre look I like to call it. It’s everything from planting to harvest and what kinds of things you can do and plans you can have in place to get you to ultimately maximize yield.”
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