Control What You Can With Digital Farming Tools

Dave Hewlitt has embraced digital farming tools on his Eston, Saskatchewan area farm for years.

Dave and his wife Christina farm 7,000 acres along with their son, Tanner, and a little help from Dave’s father, Verne. Growing durum, lentils, canola, canary seed and chickpeas, Dave loves few things more than looking out over a beautiful crop late in the season.

Easy to use data 

Currently in the midst of a string of drought years, Dave has to focus on making every dollar go further. One way he does this is by utilizing digital farming tools to collect and use his farm data to help make decisions. The tool Dave uses on his farm today is FieldView™, the digital farming tool from Bayer. Dave switched over to FieldView because of the powerful data visualization capabilities of the platform – he can literally see his data represented in field maps and summary reports, making it easier to understand and to use. And he can use FieldView across all of his equipment, regardless of age or colour.

“We see ways to start using the data, not just filling up a hard drive that I’m going to delete a year later.”

Invest where it makes sense

Dave put the visual capabilities of FieldView to use right away. After a particularly dry year, Dave realized that he had wide variations in how much fertilizer the previous crop used. Areas where a crop grew, fertilizer was depleted. But in areas where the crop failed, little to no fertilizer would have been used, leaving variable nutrient profiles across his fields. Faced with high fertilizer prices, Dave decided to use the data he had in FieldView to build out a fertilizer plan. Overlaying yield maps from the previous year with Field Health Imagery maps, Dave created customized variable rate fertilizer maps for his farm. In this way, Dave could optimize his fertilizer usage, focusing his spend where it made the most sense.

Know where you need to be

With 7,000 acres to manage during the growing season, Dave uses FieldView to prioritize his scouting activities. During one memorable year, a field looked good from the road but not-so-good once Dave ventured further in. Estimating an ultimate crop loss to an insect infestation upwards of 75%, he vowed never to let that happen again. Field Health Imagery maps from FieldView are delivered right to Dave’s inbox, providing a birds-eye-view of his fields. With these visual tools, he can quickly identify areas of concern, and plan scouting activities accordingly.

“What FieldView does really well is give you a very visual and easy-to-use collection of data so you can make decisions on your farm.”

When asked why he believes in FieldView, Dave is quick to point out that data collection is part of what farmers need to be doing, and FieldView is not only user friendly, but makes farm data more visual, thereby easier to use. And when the data is easy to see and easy to use, decision-making is made easier, too.

Dave continues to face each crop year with optimism, knowing that many factors in farming are out of his control. Digital farming tools like FieldView help him to control the things he can.

Dave participated in a FieldView farmer panel at Ag in Motion, alongside 4 other Saskatchewan farmers. Watch the video here.