New advancements in Climate FieldView TM script creation tool truly makes a prescription from any satellite image in seconds. We experienced dry weather patterns in 2020 and 2021, which makes concerning spots more visible. Seeing spots that dry up every year and weather away is hard on the eyes and pocketbook. If you can see them from the ground, they can be seen from the satellite. Climate FieldView’s subscription for $99.00 a year offers satellite images and field health monitoring. The picture to the right is a satellite image of a corn field with the crop wilting from the heat and lack of water.
I can see the brown areas are the worst and the green areas are the best, but previously it was hard to do something with the areas in between the best and worst. Climate’s field health system takes the image and breaks it down to different levels of productivity. It then groups the levels together to identify zones of similar production throughout the field.
Climate’s new tool allows the user to take that image and convert it directly into a prescription. This example prescription is for corn and I can assign the seeding rate to the zones. A good way to go about making the map is first assign the yield you think that area can achieve. Then divide that goal by 7 to calculate your seeding rate. You can manually adjust seeding populations as you see fit, but it at least gives you a reference point. On the most productive ground, I have a goal of 260-bushel corn at a planting rate of 36,000 seeds per acre. The least productive ground typically only yields 160 bushels, and I am going to plant that at 18,000 seeds per acre. Below is the finished prescription.
Now that I have the planting prescription finished, I can go back in the prescription creator and generate a fertility prescription for nitrogen. This prescription places more nitrogen to my most productive areas and not as much nitrogen to the other areas of the field. I plan to apply .7 lbs. of nitrogen per bushel, using my target yield goal of 200 bushels will apply 140 units of nitrogen. My normal rate is 150lbs of nitrogen per acre, which can be redistributed to add more in zones with room to improve and take away from zones that don’t need as much. This is especially important as nitrogen costs are around $1.00 per unit this year.
With input costs being high this year, a field specific prescription from Climate FieldView can help you manage input costs and leverage farm profitability. Contact your CFE agronomist for more information.
Video from Climate FieldView: Improved Zoning for FieldView Manual Prescriptions
