--- title: Remove the Guessing and Make Data Driven Decisions description: Another year of challenging markets and high inputs, requires farmers to remove the guessing when it comes to the decision-making process of data driven decisions for another season. image: https://info.premiercrop.com/hubfs/premiercrop_costperbushel_blog_lk.png --- [Careers](https://www.premiercrop.com/careers/) [Customer Login](https://services.premiercrop.com/?__hstc=238270879.be9eccecf6a7b1d4075b99a177f6f9ae.1534825773967.1534840763958.1534843546092.3&__hssc=238270879.2.1534843546092&__hsfp=877493044) [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/premiercropsystems/) [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PremierCrop) [![Premier Crop Systems](https://info.premiercrop.com/hubfs/PremierCropSystems_August2018%20Theme/img/PCS-color-horizontal_cs6_300.png)](https://www.premiercrop.com/) - [Home](https://www.premiercrop.com/) - [Who We Are](https://www.premiercrop.com/who-we-are/) - [What We Do](https://www.premiercrop.com/what-we-do/) - [Why It Matters](https://www.premiercrop.com/why-it-matters/) - [Podcasts](https://www.premiercrop.com/podcasts/) - [Blog](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog?__hstc=238270879.be9eccecf6a7b1d4075b99a177f6f9ae.1534825773967.1534840763958.1534843546092.3&__hssc=238270879.8.1534843546092&__hsfp=877493044) - [Contact Us](https://www.premiercrop.com/precision-agriculture-contact-us/) Search for: # Remove the Guessing and Make Data Driven Decisions Posted by [Laura Kelley](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/author/laura-kelley) on 2/12/19 8:15 AM ![Laura Kelley](https://info.premiercrop.com/hubfs/LauraKelley.jpg) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) As farmers face another year with challenging markets and high inputs, we as agronomic advisors continue to work with our clients in order to find where we can remove some of the guessing when it comes to the decision-making process of planning another season. It comes as no surprise to anyone that is involved in Agriculture that many areas saw higher than normal precipitation in 2018. The map below shows the state of Iowa and the departure from normal in inches of rainfall in 2018. ![2018 high percipitation](https://info.premiercrop.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image.png?width=468&name=image.png) (source: [https://water.weather.gov/precip/](https://water.weather.gov/precip/)  parameters from last year versus normal rainfall.) Unfortunately, this did lead to some areas of drown outs and low yielding areas in fields. Thus, there were many areas that had little if any removals of nutrients but many growers will treat those areas the same as areas that yielded well in the field. This is just one of many examples where VRT and precision agriculture can save the grower on inputs across their farms. It is important to look not just at soil sampling and soil types but also historical yield when deciding on proper recommendations for the field. At Premier Crop, it is important to us to treat every field individually and not look at those fields in a cookie cutter style approach. Premier Crop has an extensive database with over 20 years’ worth of observations. It is important to look at the return on investment for not just for every field or every acre, but what it is actually taking to produce every bushel. We are able to take all of the costs that are provided and quantify the grower’s yields with those costs. Does it make sense to continue to treat historically poor yielding ground the same as historically high yielding ground? Would your inputs be better spent if focused slightly more on ground that has more yield potential? It is important to us that we treat every acre in an unbiased way, as if we are farming it ourselves, and the data allows us to do that. The example below shows a field that has been put into three different zones of productivity based upon fertility and historical yield.  ![premiercropmanagementzones_productivity_blog_lk](https://info.premiercrop.com/hs-fs/hubfs/premiercropmanagementzones_productivity_blog_lk.png?width=512&name=premiercropmanagementzones_productivity_blog_lk.png) We then break that out further and show how each zone did on a per bushel basis with all the costs entered. As you can see we dropped our rates in the least productive zone because it didn’t show the same ability to produce as the other two management zones. ![premiercrop_costperbushel_blog_lk](https://info.premiercrop.com/hs-fs/hubfs/premiercrop_costperbushel_blog_lk.png?width=512&name=premiercrop_costperbushel_blog_lk.png) This is a great example how Premier Crop uses data to prove profitability. It's time to stop guessing and use your data to make profitable decisions. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Find more relevant posts about data analytics [here](https://info.premiercrop.com/dataanalytics).    Topics: [Farming](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/farming), [data analytics](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/data-analytics), [Precision ag](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/precision-ag), [Ag technology](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/ag-technology), [management zones](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/management-zones), [cost per bushel](https://info.premiercrop.com/blog/tag/cost-per-bushel) #### About Premier Crop Systems, based out of Des Moines, IA, started in 1999 to deliver better agronomic decisions through data analysis that lead to higher yields, increased profits and more sustainable practices for customers.  ### Subscribe ### Recent Posts This is a search field with an auto-suggest feature attached. - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. ## Guides [Precision Ag](https://info.premiercrop.com/the-power-of-precision-ag-1) [Farm Profitability](https://info.premiercrop.com/farm-profitability) [Data Analytics](https://info.premiercrop.com/dataanalytics) [Farm Efficiency](https://info.premiercrop.com/farm-efficiency) [Crop Management](https://info.premiercrop.com/crop-management) [Variable Rate Farming](https://info.premiercrop.com/variable-rate-farming) [Soil Health](https://info.premiercrop.com/soil-health)   [![Premier Crop Systems](https://info.premiercrop.com/hubfs/PremierCropSystems_August2018%20Theme/img/PCS-White-Vertical-Logo.png)](http://bluerockdesigns.info/) 2200 Gannett Des Moines, Iowa 50321 515-334-5560 Copyright 2018 Premier Crop Systems | All Rights Reserved. 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