Help Us Learn!

Frustrating! March, 2002, off to another presentation, another opportunity to expound on all the wonderful things to improve crop production. Five minutes into the talk, and BOOM! John at the back of the room yells out - "that doesn't work on my farm!"

"How do you know?", I challenge. "Did a plot last year", he answers. "Lost 5 bushels per acre following your advice". "Did you send the information in?" I ask. "No", comes the response.

NO? NO? It's March! How does this happen? How do we miss this information, these learning opportunities that could help us all improve?

Let's do better! First, participate in group projects. We need at least 30 locations from any test to really have valid data.

Second, send the data in! How can we move forward without the information. One cool trial with interesting results may spark 30 trials next year. Ferret it out. Send in your data, your neighbour's data, the local agribusiness outlet's data. My guess: there is 3 times the number of trials out on farm fields than we ever see. Simply unacceptable!

Third, do valid trials. Ian McDonald has written volumes on this, and will again. Replicate where possible. Use a check treatment on both ends and once in the middle to assess plot variability.

Last, recognize the value. Margins are incredibly tight. Many of the successful "tricks" our plots have evaluated increase yield 3 to 8 bushels per acre, at little to no additional cost. That increases profit $10.00 to $25.00 per acre. Worth chasing? You bet!

Of course, realize one last item that was wrong with my initial scenario. Johnson is never wrong……???

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