Optimum rate

Variable rate (VR), as a phrase, is thoroughly uninspiring. Boring. People want to hear about VR about as much as they want to hear about the 50-year-old wool suit I bought at Value Village for $22. I see that now. But optimum rate! That inspires.

In October, I wrote a LinkedIn post about a breakfast conversation I had with Blake Weiseth, who runs Discovery Farm at the Ag In Motion site west of Saskatoon.

“Variable rate is sexy, but it’s not the next logical step for a lot of farmers,” Weiseth said at breakfast. “For many farmers, using a fertilizer blend and rate appropriate for each field is their next step to more precise nutrient management. With field-to-field variability sorted, then let’s tackle in-field variability.”

I shared this quote on LinkedIn and asked, should precision ag advancement follow a step by step path? Or can farms skip from (a) one fertilizer blend and rate for all canola or wheat or pea fields to (c) precise management of zones within each field? This would leap past the middle step of (b) a fertilizer blend and rate appropriate for each field.

The responses were varied and insightful, founded largely on farm and agronomy experience.