Speakers
Chad Schlechter
Schlechter Ag Liquid, Pierre, South Dakota
Galynn Beer
AgroLiquid Strategy and Product Management Lead
Cody Fischer
Fischer Family Acres, Hooker, Oklahoma
About
Growers have the opportunity to try new things every day. Some work, some don’t. And when things don’t go as planned, you have to find ways to turn setbacks into comebacks.
Fast Facts
1. You only have one chance to plant the crop.
“You can’t bully the crop,” says Chad Schlechter of Schlechter Ag Liquid. “Just because the calendar says it’s time to plant doesn’t mean that’s what’s best. Sometimes conditions aren’t right for planting and waiting is the best plan.”
Whether planting happens according to the calendar or Mother Nature’s timetable, Schlechter is a firm believer that you need to stick with your crop nutrition plan.
“You have to stay in it. You always have to do a good basic job, then you can come back and add more nutrition later in the season and raise a good crop.”
Watch XtremeAg Video Refining Recommendations
Schlechter goes on to say that nutrient placement is important in getting planting right. As a no-till farmer, he relies on air seeders and corn planters to fertilize in-furrow or two-by-two to get nutrients where they need to go.
Read Does Fertile Soil Always Mean a Higher Yield?
2. No two operations are the same.
“There will always be variables in how you do things versus how your neighbor does them,” says Cody Fischer of Fischer Family Acres. “It’s important to trial things for yourself and understand that just because your neighbor had a good result doesn’t mean you’ll have the same.”
For example, he’s been Y-dropping his corn for three years. Where most area growers use a pivot to place in-season nitrogen, he wanted to see if he could push yield by
placing nitrogen at the base of the plant.
He recommends picking a manageable number of trials so you can try new things without putting yourself at risk financially.
Read Y-Drop Application for Liquid Fertilizer
Watch Back 2 Basics: Fertilizer Placement
3. Mistakes are necessary to progress.
“Don’t let mistakes paralyze you,” says AgroLiquid’s Galynn Beer.
Instead, he recommends reviewing the data to see what went wrong.
“It’s hard to revisit a mistake, but sometimes you go back and realize you didn’t put that trial in a position to win,” he says.
For example, Beer has been trying copper on his farm. Though there have been high yields, he hasn’t seen the telltale signs he’s looking for – better-standing corn, decreased green snap in high winds or improved health that helps avoid fungicide application. He is considering increasing his copper input and testing again to see if he achieves different results.
Event Videos
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