Premier Crop Systems is pleased to announce that the Board of Directors has appointed Darren Fehr as President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors effective immediately. Fehr previously held the position of Director, Sales & Marketing with Premier Crop Systems and will succeed Dan Frieberg. As Dan transitions toward retirement, he will remain actively engaged in the company as Vice President, Technical Services.

When I’m visiting with growers and advisers, I frequently say that maps are a great way to view data, but the real power lies within the data file that the map represents.

Is it possible that 3 and 2 can equal more than 5? That's the concept of synergy – when the "whole equals more than the sum of the parts". Within our company, we talk a lot about agronomic synergies. We see it in data analysis and we believe that discovering and capitalizing on agronomic synergies is an exciting part of our future in using data to make better decisions. 

I have never liked the warning "you don't get a second chance to make a first impression." It always seems to futile and irreversible. But one example that I encounter frequently relates to how variable rate applications were first positioned by the ag input industry. Years ago, when GPS was first allowing us to measure differences within fields and variable rate controller technology was being pioneered, the value proposition presented to most growers was "this will save you money."

Private colleges market their low faculty-student ratios to compete with the draw of big universities and the message is it's a place where we know your name. Insurance companies compete by selling the value of an agent when you have a claim vs. a phone number to call – the message is you are more than a number. These savvy marketers know that "me matters" – at some level most of us value being treated as the individuals we are. Being treated as though we are all the same as our peers – whether by age, gender, race, economic situation or other demographic insults our sense of being unique in the world.

Hunters and soil scientists may seem like an odd pairing but they have at least one thing in common – they know and appreciate that nature has an aversion to straight lines. Hunters spend a lot of time in and observing the great outdoors and getting an up-close look at the variability Mother Nature molded upon our landscape. Soil scientists not only spend time looking at the curvy contour lines that represent the transition from one soil type to another but their academic training is about the "how's and why's" of soil formation over the centuries.

When I began my career in crop production, we would routinely pull 20 soil sample cores, mix the cores in a bucket, pour one pound into a sample bag, send it off to the lab, get the results back and then pretend that what was on the sheet of paper accurately represented the nutrient levels for the entire field. While that may have been the best we could do then, we can do much better now – but many are treating entire fields the same. The economics of grid or small-zone sampling fields and variable-rate applying lime, phosphorus and potassium need to be revisited by many growers and their advisers. Nutrient prices have tripled since grid sampling was first introduced, and grain prices have escalated from the $2.50 per bushel days – meaning the reward for managing your nutrient investment intensely has never been higher.

Throughout Premier Crop's nearly 20 year history, we've perhaps been the most diligent at communicating that what we do – big data analysis – would be considered "observational data analysis" by those in the scientific community.

Difficult economic times tend to bring out skepticism or at least a review of current practices. Recently I was asked “Do variable rate applications of any crop input really pay?” To some it might be surprising that 20 plus years after variable rate technology was first brought to the market, there are still so many that haven’t “bought in” to the concept.

Yield results are in and every plot or trial has an overall winner! Winning a plot isn't easy. Sometimes, luck is involved. Years ago, one of our customers measured the impact of "shading" in a plot. If your company's hybrid was placed next to taller hybrids, how much did being shaded by a taller hybrid affect yield in the outside rows that were shaded? They found the difference could range from 7.7 to 33 bu/acre penalty from being shaded! In some company's trials protocols, they discard the outside two rows and only count the results from the inside two rows.