b'Precision is NowDAVID GLEASONSmartFarm business unit managerSimplotsimplot.comPRECISION PRODUCTION,data- start-ups of all kindshave introducedPrecision ag isnt our core business but driven farming, digital agriculture:whole suites of data-generating and datait complements the inputs and services regardless of what name you give it,transmitting tools. Creating and collectingthat we provide to our customers. We information-based agriculture isnt justdata is the easy part. The much biggersee our SmartFarm platform as a tool to coming to a field near you, its coming tochallenge is taking all that data andimprove and guide management decisions your fields now or in the very near future.turning it into something meaningful:through the use of data. Our goal is not to With margins becoming tighter than ever,aggregating information and translatingsell standalone precision ag products but resources becoming increasingly scarceit into insights that can drive efficiencyrather to provide whole farm data driven (and costly!), consumers getting moreimprovements in-field.agronomic advice and solutions. and more demanding, and our industrysSeventy-five years ago, SimplotThe efficiency gains precision agriculture mindfulness of the environmentstarted buying processing potatoes fromcan facilitate require continuous data continuing to grow, optimizing efficiencyCanadian producers. Because wevecollection, monitoring and adjustment. through precision-based production is thealways recognized that our success hingesIs it worth the effort? While return on evolution of agriculture. But dont worryon producers success, it wasnt longinvestment is farm-dependent, field- you dont have to figure it all out onbefore we expanded into the other enddependent, and ultimately area-of-the-your own. of the value chain: providing crop inputsfield-dependent, SmartFarms retention rate Maximizing efficiency starts withwhere and when producers need them.among farmers who are highly engaged identifying where there is in-fieldNow, weve stepped into the precisionis nearly 100 per cent, which gives us variability and what is causing it, thenag spherein fact, weve developedconfidence that were providing real value. adjusting management to best addressa best in the business, full-spectrumSome producers are keen on jumping that variability. Over the past handful ofdigital agriculture support system calledinto full-spectrum precision agriculture; years, piles of companiesfrom industrySmartFarmto further support ourothers prefer to step in more slowly. Were leaders like John Deere and CNH to techgrowers. here to help.Are Lurking Pathogens Already Wreaking Havoc Below Ground?CHAD HUTCHINSONGlobal director of potato research and market supportTriCal Groupstrikefumigants.comFARMERS USUALLY FEELprettyOnce the crop goes through flower andbeneficial soil microbes. A true fumigant, hopeful about the potential of their cropsstarts senescence, disease issues will startchloropicrin moves through the soil as at the start: the most common commentto become obvious above ground too, anda gas, managing disease throughout the I hear in early summer is, This is goingproducers hopes for fantastic harvest willtreated zone. to be my year! By the time harvest rollsstart evaporating.Farmers who use chloropicrin report around, however, those same farmers areIn case thats not enough bad news,the same results as we see in field trials: often disappointed that the potential theyheres more. While growers can supportmarketable yield improvement, noticeable saw in June and July didnt translate totheir crop via foliar disease control,quality increases, suppression of common yield. What happened? adequate nutrition and timely waterscab, a reduction in verticillium, and a Potato crops tend to look best in earlythroughout the growing season, soilbreaking of the early die complex. season. In June and into July, the plantspathogensa potato crops biggest yieldMy biggest concern is that some are still powered by the seed and theyrerobbersarent manageable duringproducers dont realise what theyre usually coming out of fair or good winter/ the season. Thats why planning inmissing. If every year follows the same spring moisture. I think of the crop asthe summer and fall are so critical tocycle of beautiful potential followed by being like a young teenager at that stageprotecting the next years crop.compromised yield, producers may thinkfull of energy and living beyond itsChloropicrin, sold as Strike, is a newthats inescapable reality. I dare you to means. But middle age is coming for it asgeneration, greener, more sustainable,try even a small test plot treated with it comes for all of us.highly effective soil fumigant. Far fromchloropicrin. Once you see the difference, If you dig up plants in early summer,being a soil sterilizer, chloropicrin worksyoull join the quickly growing list of youll see pathogens lurking in the soil areselectively to suppress disease evenfarmers who use Strike. already wreaking havoc below ground.as it actively stimulates the growth of SPUDSMART.COM Fall 202231'