Mike and his family also use this John Deere Farm King 1460 fertiliser unit for side-dressing.
information as they can, and keep it, even if not immediately useful. For those looking to buy new equipment, Mike also says it’s worth looking at pieces that have or can be equipped with variable rate drives and other similar technology. “Have a good soil sampling process,” he says. “Find a trusted company to work with and have them make your scripts.” As for mistakes, Mike says they have been lucky to experience no major setbacks in their adoption of variable rate management.
A Case Patriot 3330 sprayer featuring a 120-foot boom. This is one of the only non-green pieces of equipment owned by the Cornelissen family.
However, he admits they “may have got a little ahead of themselves” when it comes to acquir- ing some of the technology. An example of this is the purchase of their variable-rate maize planter, which they bought several years be- fore actually using it. “When the time came it was good to have it. But again, when you’re buying equipment new, it doesn’t cost that much more to put the variable drive on it,” he says. “It was a good investment. It just took a bit longer to use some of the stuff than we were hoping, especially with the yield data. We
thought that would be an important factor a lot quicker.”
2019 was the first year where everything the Cornelissen family did was variable rate. As for next steps, Mike says they want to look at more historical data to find further zone-to- zone differences, while better refining how they accrue data. They are also interested in finding other ways variable-rate can stream- line production, such as whether it can be suc- cessfully employed in wheat seeding or for interseeding cover crops.
The Cornelissen’s customised strip-till fertiliser applicator. It’s a 12-row shank- style unit featuring three fertiliser tanks with a total capacity of 12 metric tons. Each tank also has its own variable rate drive. It can apply up to 500 pounds (227 kilograms) of fertiliser per acre.
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 22 May 2020 11
PHOTO: MATT MCINTOSH
PHOTO: MATT MCINTOSH
PHOTO: MATT MCINTOSH
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