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ihman73 01-25-2013 20:28:01 38.104.162.142 Report to Moderator

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is temper your expectations early on. It took several years before we really started to see results other than on the soil test maps. The lay of the land makes a lot of difference also, if you have varying soil types that are typically "sweet" spots in a field they usually test lower. The VRT allows you to build up those areas without piling it on areas that don't need it. By bringing those areas up to par and I think the newer generation beans are affecting it also we have increased our bean average by 10+ bu. in some fields. We usually get a map from the co-op for each field with the prescription and we put max rate caps on to reconcile it with the checkbook and best practices (just because the test level calls for 500 lb./ac. potash doesn't mean you should put it on that heavy). We paid for the first round of grid samples with the reduction in lime we applied that fall. The maps had them only spreading partial fields so both our tons and acres spread were lower than if we had straight spread it with what the low areas needed. [Reply]   [No Email]