CANDO, Sask. — Jim Cook has become a believer in investing in intensive agronomic strategies.
As he combined his wheat Sept. 13, Cook was noticeably pleased with what he was seeing in his field. He didn’t need a weigh wagon to tell him that the crop had a significant yield increase.
The Cando farmer averaged 117 bushels of soft white wheat per acre using a system dubbed Ultimate Yield Management.
“I’m sold on this Ultimate Yield program. I’ll keep it on this field and I’ll incorporate it on the south field. Eventually it will be throughout all of it,” he said.
Read Also
Ag in Motion speaker highlights need for biosecurity on cattle operations
Ag in Motion highlights need for biosecurity on cattle farms. Government of Saskatchewan provides checklist on what you can do to make your cattle operation more biosecure.
The “south field” yielded a respectable 80 bu. per acre using the traditional approach.
Cook farms 2,000 acres.
Ultimate Yield is an agronomic program developed and patented by Dennis Bulani of Biggar, Sask., who also owns a nine bulk fertilizer and petroleum outlet business.
The agronomist farms a section of land near Cook’s, where he researched and developed the agronomic program.
Touted as a new approach to crop production management, the program rates seven factors that determine ultimate yield: seed bed preparation, seeding date, seeding depth, seed quality, nutrition, pest control and weather.
A rating scale of one to 10 measures the positive or negative impact that each decision has on determining the ultimate yield for a field. By evaluating
each decision, the report card allows the farm manager to re-evaluate the impact that decision may have on limiting yield.
“Ultimate Yield is not just an agronomy program. It’s a methodology in evaluating all the management on a farm,” said Bulani.
With Bulani’s consultation, Cook planted soft white spring wheat on two quarter sections on the north and south sides of Highway 4.
Crop production on the south field followed traditional methods while the north field used the Ultimate Yield program, “just to see if going full-bore on the spraying and the fertilizer was an advantage. It’s proven that it was, big time,” said Cook.
Cook’s north field received a final score of 88 percent, compared to the south field’s score of 63 percent. It achieved that with an investment of $118 per acre, including a change in crop rotation a year in advance.
Lentils were put into the rotation in 2010 and helped set the stage for Cook’s high yielding wheat crop.
Harvesting more than 100 bu. of wheat was not in the plans for the program’s initial growing season.
“One of the first things we had to do was look at the fact that he just can’t grow those yields in the first year. Just because you decide you can do it doesn’t mean you can do it,” said Bulani.
He said farmers can be overly influenced by current crop prices. Maintaining proper crop rotation is key, he added.
“Sometimes growers will grow what is the highest price in the market. In other words, they’re growing canola when they should actually maybe be putting a pulse in. Just because pulses are lower in price, does that mean it’s the right decision for your farm. It may not be,” he said.
Bulani said Cook’s bumper wheat crop is a good example.
“The year you grow a pulse on your farm, maybe your revenue is not as high, but long-term your revenue is much higher because it’s an important part of a rotation,” he said.
“This exact example proves that. Always going for the top moneymaking crop in terms of economics isn’t always long term going to be the highest return for the farm on a three, four or five year average.”
He said investing an extra $118 per acre is not an easy choice and many producers select lower target yields.
“The beauty of UYM is it fleshed out the areas and potential solution cost. The producer can then decide if he wants to risk in some or all of the areas.
“If you want to target 100 bu. an acre average this year, it will cost you about $118 per acre to get there. If you like the risk, go for it. If you do not, accept a lower target yield.”
