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News from Around Servi-Tech
Southwest kansas
Staff in Kansas have been very
busy pulling acres of grid sampling
throughout the country. We have also
been actively working and educating
ourselves on seed varieties, as well as
what is coming through the pipelines
from the chemical and
fertilizer companies. With
the New Year approaching,
we want to make planning
for the upcoming season
an easy process. Give us a
call if your organization is
needing some extra boots
on the ground. We would
be more than happy to assist
with agronomic needs.
season were excellent crops. It was just
another year that it is hard to compare to
any others since all seasons seem to have
idiosyncrasies that depart from previous
experience and long term averages.
As harvest has concluded, fall tillage and
fertilizer application is proceeding rapidly.
Eastern colorado
Harvest continues to wrap
up with the primary areas
left being areas that planted
crops very late due to heavy
May and June precipitation.
Those crops were not fully mature
before the hard freeze and have been
slow to dry down. An abundance of
foggy, damp days also slowed harvest.
It is unusual to have this much harvest
activity after Thanksgiving. Yields
have been good to excellent. There
are plenty of areas that almost burned
up crops due midsummer drought.
Those areas may have crops planted at
a normal time that didn’t fill the grain
when crops planted later due to the
WINTER 2017
Growers are trying to get work done
before a weather change that may freeze
the soils and stop all field work. Staff
has worked to keep ground soil sampled
ahead of the fall fertilizer applications so
growers have data available when needed.
Contracting is proceeding, but at a slow
pace due to delayed field work and some
growers being slow to make commitments
due to economic stress and questions
about what the future holds.
We have done a series of small group
meetings to further train our staff on
the new Sirrus field data recording and
reporting software. We have also discussed
holding grower meetings this winter and
have discussed sales programs on other
services such as CropView and TheProfiler
Plus. The staff is cautiously optimistic
on what future business prospects are as
commitments become contracts and
other service possibilities are discussed.
central nebraska
Our central Nebraska staff remains
concentrated on soil sampling with a
goal to complete as much as possible
prior to soil freeze
up. Composite
sampling still seems
to be the most
popular method,
but more interest
has developed with
both grid and zone
sampling. Also,
deep soil nitrate
testing has been
a very common
practice and is
required in most of
the NRD regions
we serve. With
the soil sampling
expertise of our
staff of agronomists, the end goal is to
provide accurate nutrient requirements
based on crop, yield goal, and fertilizer
application techniques. In my opinion,
grid sampling is the best way to see
the overall fertility levels of a given
field and the variabilities that exist
across that given field. We may not
necessarily end up applying less fertility
amendments, but what is applied is
placed where it is needed most. Often
the higher producing areas within a
field may show the lowest fertility levels
and vice versa. Solid thinking would
tell us that maximizing yield potential
in this economical way offers the best
chance for a positive return on your
fertilizer investment.
Other areas of focus include
around aerial imagery and remote soil
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