Ontario Grain Farmer November 2021

Still others may want to look at precision technology for applying dry-banded fertilizer, which is being used more and more in Ontario. Zwambag reports that in trials in 2020 with Precision Planting, Devolder Farms, “all of them confirmed our confidence that applying nitrogen with the planter pass in corn is worthwhile. The average yield difference was 10 bushels per acre. There was also a positive response to nitrogen on soybeans in both our trials. The 20-gallon application provided the biggest yield gain of 8.33 bushels per acre, while 10-gallon application provided the best economic response at $83.12 per acre.” If there is variability in the soil types of your fields, on-the-go soil moisture sensing can provide huge payback for some farmers. With this attachment, you can make manual adjustments using feedback from your monitor or you can set the system to automatically change planting depth depending on chosen soil moisture parameters. TWEAKING OVER TIME Whatever planter attachments you purchase, it is important to deal with a company whom you can rely on for equipment familiarization and later on, for service. Set up for most attachments is straightforward and can be done where you buy or at your farm. However, no precision planter attachment (or any other piece of equipment) negates the need for supervision — the need to get out of the cab and check planter performance. “You have to use it, build trust in it, and learn how to run it efficiently,” says Curtis. “Any add-on requires management. You still have to get out and tweak the system and fine-tune in every field. But with the right attachments, you can go faster and faster (barring rocks) and still do an incredible planting job and the payback can be fantastic. Having one or more attachments set to the right parameters also means that if you have an employee run the planter, you can feel very confident that you are going to get great results.” Zwambag echoes these thoughts. “You are going to need to do some tweaking. And keep in mind that as with any technology, it’s only as good as how well you understand the data on the screen.” Overall, he advises farmers to start with the ‘big’ problems first. “You don’t want to be overwhelmed, and that’s the beauty of it, that you can master one thing at a time, then add another,” Zwambag explains. “My advice is to master seed spacing and downforce, then look at other things such as closing, planting depth in relation tomoisture, and fertility — probably in that order. But again, it definitely depends on each individual farm and the issues causing poor emergence in some areas.” l ONTARIO GRAIN FARMER 13 NOVEMBER 2021 Your first step is to call a reputable precision planter company and discuss the problems that you would like to solve. “There are many reasons to choose Maizex: plant health, grain quality, and test weight are top of the list.” Dean Sayles | Buck Shot Acres Ltd. | Paris, ON MZ 4040DBR, MZ 4158DBR, MZ 4280DBR & MS 0330R www.maizex.com For Your Field, Your Farm. PERFORMANCE Tr u e Maizex_Ont Grain Farmer_Sayles 7.125 x 3.25 9_21.indd 1 9/15/21 1:20 PM