Make the Most of Your Yield Monitor this Harvest
6 Header Set up workshops were held across South Australia during October 2008
More then 250 growers have now attended SPAA's Grain Grower Group Meetings
The workshops have given growers an insight into the benefits of yield mapping and the opportunity to talk with dealers about setting up their yield monitors to collect quality yield data.The key points from these workshops are outlined below, including:
- The ability to calculate gross margin maps, to identify areas of the paddock that are making a financial return and any that are making a loss. This information helps to determine where crop inputs are being used more efficiently and giving a financial return so that cropping inputs such as fertiliser can be better targeted.
- To calculate multiyear gross margins to identify areas where financial return is higher or lower year after year. This enables growers to more confidently ask questions about what fertiliser applications are best suited to those areas, or in some cases if the areas with lower returns should be cropped at all. Without a yield map it would not be possible to accurately calculate these gross margins and identify how it varies across a paddock.
- To calculate phosphorus (P) replacement rates for the following year, by identifying how much grain was harvested from different locations in a paddock. This information can be used to calculate how much P has been removed from those locations, P can then be applied the following year to where it was removed by that crop.
- To conduct on farm trials and measure the results, for example, yield results of a trial comparing P replacement in a few strips with traditional P rates could be measured with yield mapping
Key Points for Collecting Quality Yield Data
Clean your card off before harvest
Check your maps within the first 3 days of harvest
Check your maps regularly
Always calibrate for each grain, each year
Calibrate once for each grain
You may have to reconfigure your GPS settings
Always make a copy of your yield files
Data Cards – Logging & Downloading
Use the same paddock names in all years
You can usually load paddock names and grain types onto the monitor before harvest starts
Select the correct name when starting a new paddock
Download the data card to yield mapping software regularly during harvest
Check that the data can be viewed on your Computer
If satisfied the data has been downloaded correctly the card can be wiped to free up memory
Backup data regularly
Try to minimise calibrations half way through a paddock
A well calibrated yield monitor can have accuracy within +/- 2%
Calibrations can be refined after harvest in the yield mapping software using the total grain deliveries for individual paddocks.
Raise the header front at the end of runs and try to keep a full comb
On Farm Trials
Don’t change two things at once
Make treatments big enough to assess with a yield monitor
Minimum trial size should be 100 metres long by 3 header widths wide
Put trial strips through representative areas of the paddock
Repeat treatments or separate strips with the paddock treatment
Know where the treatments are
Keep good records
Their are a range of important benefits of getting your yield monitor working and collecting quality data for mapping, particularly with the price of fertilisers, the ability to make better decisions about fertiliser applications cannot be overlooked. So if you have a yield monitor, get it working, start collecting and reap the benefits.
For more information about the PA Groups please contact
Sam Trengove samtrengove@spaa.com.au or Mobile 0428 262 057
Supported by the SA Grains Industry Trust and Landmark |
