Experts from the UK’s leading precision crop production service, SOYL, have been speaking to growers at Groundswell about how its precision technology can highlight soil characteristics to help with future on-farm decisions.
In particular, advisors talked about the benefits of using data to manage soil variation and nutrients, how field performance can be optimised using variable seed rates and how MySOYL can support with data management.
Regional manager, Peter Croot, explains the importance of knowing what’s beneath your feet: “Understanding the varied characteristics of your soil is an essential foundation for planning future operations. Services like our electrical conductivity scanning, GPS sampling, analysis and mapping can give a great insight into the state of your soils and how to get the best from them going forward.”
SOYL’s advisors also discussed the importance of assessing nutrients and areas of variation, soil sampling regimes and influencing nutrient availability. These in turn can lead to improved yield, better fertiliser management and a reduced impact on the environment.
In addition, growers learnt more about SOYL’s variable rate seed service which helps determine the optimum seed rate to suit the soil. Peter explains, “Once you have an understanding of your soils, you have an understanding of how best to work with them. By mapping soil variation, we can produce seed rate maps that will indicate how much seed should be sown at each point for optimal results.”
Advisors were also be on hand to talk visitors through SOYL’s web-based precision data management tool, MySOYL. With a user-friendly interface, MySOYL collates all the above data and makes it easy to add, retrieve and alter information as and when needed. With all the data in one place, growers can quickly and easily analyse the results of their precision farming and make well-informed business decisions.
