There are many ways to trial new products on your farm. Possibly one of the most common is what you might call a split-planter or side-by-side trial which we’ll refer to as a split treatment trial. For example, two hybrids in the planter. Half on one side, half on the other side. A split treatment trial could also be done for seed treatments, fungicide, crop protection--anything that can run in a side by side. This could even be separate passes with a sprayer, stripped through the field.
Typically, a grower or advisor running a trial like this might pull the yield averages for each of the treatments as an average across the field. Maybe, you drill down the area you’re comparing and exclude the end rows of the field.
At Premier Crop, we look at things a little differently. To truly understand what might be impacting yield and ultimately profitability, you need to go deeper. It’s not enough to just know that Hybrid A beat Hybrid B. You need to know how that can change a decision next season. Where should I place Hybrid A? Where did it perform the best?
By layering all of the agronomic information about each field (soil test values, historical yield performance, nutrient application rates, planting populations, soil data, weather, crop protection, planting, harvest, and application dates, the list goes on…) we can build a case for where Hybrid A had the biggest impact and the highest profitability—leading you to the ultimate decisions—should I buy it next year? Where should I plant it, and when?
While there is valuable information in a traditional split treatment trial because it is on your farm, there is even more valuable information to be gathered if you prove it with Premier.
