We hear it in many arenas, yet sometimes fail to act: The key to success is planning, and preparation. In essence, to perform at our best, we need to be ready! Gold medal athletes, airline pilots, doctors, and yes, even growers!
As part of AGSI’s Ready, Set…GROW! perpetual planning framework, we’ve identified the ‘Ready’ portion of this plan as anticipating your needs well in advance of when the snow begins to melt. Just like all of those in the careers listed above, the reality is, as a grower, you really only have one shot at getting it right! Why leave anything to chance?
In collaboration with many of our growers, we’ve identified Ten Critical Steps in Making Sure YOU’RE Ready:
1. Evaluate this past growing season: Was I satisfied with my ROI? Did I make the best decisions I could have possibly have made for optimal yield performance?
2. Set Goals: Including yield targets, costs of production, and return on investment, based on past history and results as benchmarks for the coming years’ performance.
3. Ever heard the phrase, “Get your ducks in a row?” - - Formulate Plans: an inputs plan, labour plan and financial plan address products, people, and resources needed to attain and surpass your benchmarks.
4. Enter into a partnership: AGSI Solutions Team Players can assist in an in-depth crop production plan, and help guide you through the year!
5. Soil Tests: Consider it your Ready, Set…GROW! Foundation: allows for complete, fully informed plans and recommendations.
6. Consider years down the road: Have a defined crop rotational strategy in place, and select the proper seed variety for your field.
7. Taking stock of Product Logistics & Timing: we’ve heard it’s a good idea to have everything at the farm-gate before seeding. Is this a possibility for you?
8. Overall Crop Nutrition: Know your options: Your partnerships with AGSI allow you to make the most informed decision about the different fertility options available to you, and the forms they are available in to ensure balanced overall plant nutrition.
9. Mapping out a Crop Protection Plan: An AGSI Solutions Team Player can help you design the proper plan for your needs; taking into account past experience, and previous year’s weed reports, and your crop rotation strategy.
10.Mother Nature: Am I prepared to deal with whatever weather may come: proper planning allows for calculated adjustments (HINT: For anybody thinking ahead, that’s the ‘Set’ part)
Consult with your local AGSI & Partners Location today, to make sure you’re ready to be ready….when rubber hits the road!
Vegreville – AGSI Customers discuss the benefits of Fungicides, and Advanced Fungicides on their 2011 crops.
Southwest of Vegreville, Alberta, two AGSI customers are now true believers in using Fungicides and Advanced Fungicides to increase their yields…by as much as a 17.4%. With rain pouring down this past spring - and the forecast showing even more to come, growers Brent and Lorne Wyllie made a decision to protect their crop investment. Their AGSI dealer arranged for a high clearance applicator to apply the product, when the window of opportunity presented itself.
The Wyllie’s saw the results in their plots right away: “When we walked the fields, the treated portions kept their leaf size better and less evidence of disease pressure was observed on the plant. As the crop continued to fill, we were starting to get excited over the kernel size. Although we could never see any visual evidence from the road, our brother happened to take an aerial photo of the entire wheat field with the plots late in the season. No doubt about it, there were clear borders of the protected and check strips in the wheat!”
The two farmers exclaim, “Come harvest time, the yield monitors and weigh wagon confirmed that these products do an amazing job. We were glad we didn’t leave too many acres untreated. Protein, germination, moisture, grade, and 1000 kw weight were all equal to or better than the check strips. The yield was the largest profitable factor in the scenario with as much as a 17.4% increase!”
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Treatment |
Moisture |
Protein |
Test Weight |
Grade |
Yield (bu/ac) |
|
Advanced Fungicide |
13.9 |
12.7 |
67 |
Base Grade 1 CWRS-Ergot 0.022 |
76.4 |
|
Fungicide |
14.4 |
13 |
66.2 |
1 CWRS |
71.2 |
|
Untreated |
14.1 |
13 |
64 |
Base Grade 1 CWRS-Ergot 0.022 |
63.1 |
Economic Analysis
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Untreated
|
Fungicide
|
Advanced Fungicide
|
Fungicide (cost/acre)
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$0.00
|
$12.98
|
$17.00
|
Application (cost/acre)
|
$0.00
|
$6.00
|
$6.00
|
Total (cost/acre)
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$0.00
|
$18.98
|
$23.00
|
|
|
|
|
Yield (bu/ac)
|
63.00
|
71.00
|
76.00
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$/bu (Nov Pro Price)
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$7.31
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$7.31
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$7.31
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Revenue/acre
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$460.53
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$519.01
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$555.56
|
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|
|
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Net Revenue/acre
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$460.53
|
$500.03
|
$532.56
|
|
|
|
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Profit increase/acre vs. untreated
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-
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$39.50
|
$72.03
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As the calendar turns to 2012, and growers across the province work on their ‘Ready’ plans for next season, it is important to factor in all elements, and ensure results like those of the Wyllie’s.
Talk to your AGSI Solutions Team Player today about your options to ensure optimum yields this coming season - - It’s never too early to be ready!
Before you know it, we’ll be turning the page on yet another Calendar year – and we don’t have to tell you that it went by in a blink! Or, that before you know it, the machinery will be getting fine-tuned, geared up, and out in full force to get your crop in the ground!
As part of our Ready, Set…GROW! Philosophy at AGSI, we believe you can take critical steps now to make sure you’re in prime position to succeed at go time! It’s simple…have a plan…be ready, so you’re set to GROW!
What exactly does it mean to be ready? It means knowing that the year really doesn’t start when the snow melts…in reality, your perfect plan starts now… and its foundation: The Soil Test!
Says Andrukow Group Strategic Solutions Coach Wayne Rolston: “The soil test is really the key to balanced crop nutrition and overall plant health. We have the tools to identify and satisfy your field’s specific nutritional needs; and a healthy crop equals a healthy return.”
Adds Rolston, “Without a soil test analysis, you’re only guessing at what your crop needs….and there are too many elements involved to just make a guess.”
Consider these examples:
An easy metaphor can be mentioned here. Like a doctor making a prescription after a check-up, your AGSI Solutions Team Member is among the best in the business at providing interpretations, analysis, and making specific recommendations to maximize your yield potential.
But again, it all starts with the Ready Process...and building a bursting bin from a proper foundation – The Soil Test!
Talk to your AGSI Solutions Team Member today about your 2012 plan; and about our joint Precision-Ag Technology venture Point Forward Solutions, to ensure you’re putting your best bin forward!
Central Alberta – October – Enhanced root development and shorter maturation periods due to Specialty Product application.
More producers in the Provost area are believers in AGSI Exclusive Product Canola Boost, after harvesting very healthy, excellent yielding crops. Both of the growers we talked to agreed that Canola Boost increased their plant’s vigour, and led to enhanced root development.
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AGSI Customer Lyndon Flad, who farms near Provost, noticed dramatic improvement in many areas: “What impressed me was how healthy the crop that was treated with Canola Boost was. I saw longer, straighter pods, no green seeds, and the root development was much better – which of course leads to a much healthier plant.” |
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Variety 1: w/ Canola Boost – 46Bu/ac
w/ Canola Boost + Boron – 56.4Bu/ac
Variety 2: w/ Canola Boost – 53 Bu/ac
Variety 3: w/ Canola Boost – 51 Bu/ac *(Historical Returns average 38-39 Bu/ac)*
“My greatest advantage was basic – for every $15/acre, I received $120/acre in return using Canola Boost and Boron – Great investment in my books!”
Brian Stempfle operates Stempfle Farms in Provost, and applied Canola Boost to 900 of his acres
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“I was amazed with plant flowering…much brighter and longer lasting,” explains Brian. “The plants matured five days earlier than normal, which really helped in a condensed season. Overall, I’d say I saw approximately 1800-2000 more bushels this year, and with today’s prices, that’s somewhere in the neighbourhood of a $20,000 increase in revenue.” |
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AGSI customers are seeing the results of this exclusive product, and see it as an integral component in their successful Agronomic Plans. Talk to your AGSI Solutions Specialist today to aim higher in your fields as well!
Succeed with Cereal Boost and Canola Boost – exclusively available with Your HOW TO, GO TO PEOPLE! We want you to:
Central Alberta – September - AGSI Grower’s maximize their potential by aiming higher, with Cereal Boost and Canola Boost.
The praise is pouring in from some local AGSI customers who saw their yields pick up significantly this season. They say the exclusive AGSI specialty products Cereal Boost and Canola Boost played a major role in their increased production, overall plant health, and maturity.
Blair Schurman, of B&L Enterprises near Provost, Alberta was expecting to see 30 Bu/ac on his canola plots – the norm for this piece of land. Says Schurman, “This spring the canola was not advancing like the rest of the canola in the area, so I decided to use canola boost.”
The results speak for themselves:
RR Canola 1: 42Bu/ac RR Canola 2: 48.2Bu/ac
RR Canola 3: 48.7Bu/ac RR Canola 4: 38.9Bu/ac
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“I was pleased, because the treated canola had no greens and matured 7-10 days earlier before the crop that went untreated. As of Saturday, September 17th, all the treated canola is in the bin, and at much higher than the 30Bu/ac that I was expecting!”
AGSI grower Alois Schaab, of AK Farm Ltd out of Cactus Lake, Saskatchewan applied Cereal Boost to his Unity seed this year, and was very impressed with the increase in yield:
Liquid Fertilizer WITHOUT Cereal Boost: 45Bu/ac
Liquid Fertilizer WITH Cereal Boost: 50Bu/ac
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“The Cereal Boost treated wheat grew very “I used Cereal Boost to treat barley too, |
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An AGSI exclusive, Cereal Boost and Canola Boost worked in these fields…it will work in yours too! Talk to your AGSI Solutions Specialist today, about these exclusive Boost Products and aim higher with them in your next Agronomic Plan!
Ready, Set…GROW! With AGSI; Your HOW TO, GO TO People!
