As harvest wraps up, farmers continue to think about their crops and how they yielded. They begin to notice certain things that impacted the crop in each field during the growing season that are now more visible as the crop matures. Stalk quality, disease levels, plant health, drought tolerance and management are all indicators of the kind of growing season it has been. As a result, what comes to the minds of most growers is, which varieties were best at resisting those problems and will yield the most. They start deciding which ones need to be eliminated from their program. However, that line of thinking is most often misdirected.
A Thousand Variables Effecting Results
It’s fall, the time when every field in our area is displaying the results of a sometimes-challenging year. The impact of the 1,000 variables on the crop has effected each field’s overall performance in some way. Some of the affects were positive, and some were negative. In addition, the grower’s own attention to detail really paid off this year by making sure the crop, and field were protected as much as possible from those variables. We know growers with even the best intentions and attention to detail were negatively impacted at points throughout the season by certain uncontrollable variables. Lack of rain, hot weather, spider mites and other factors can sometimes overwhelm all human efforts.
When you judge a field this time of year it can tell you a lot. It may tell you what a great job you did. It may show you areas you can improve on, or it may tell you there is nothing else you could have done. The results in the field will reflect that. So, give yourself a pat on the back where things went as planned because of the actions you took to protect the crop. Give yourself a mild kick in the shin where you could have done better and the crop is telling you that. Or, simply shrug your shoulders where mother nature got you and there was nothing you or anyone else could have done about it.
As you wrap up this harvest season, review your notes on what you learned. Every one of my customers does a great job. But we all have things we can improve on as new challenges are thrown our way every year. We will continue to discuss those improvements as we finalize your cropping plans for 2023 planting.
Contact us today & ask about our Max Yield System©, so you can always plan ahead and have a cropping plan!
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