Donnellson, IA. Makes saying here easier. | Similar experiences and have always done my own soil sampling too. Law of extremes......too low and too high on pH both not good. Haven't had a farm that was new to grids ever need the same lime treatments. Most of the time the savings more than pays for the testing.
Soil fertility is so complex and still massively miss understood.....I would rather use yield data or multiple years of vegetative maps to determine fertilizer needs on zones than off my grids. Just my approach. Has made my acres more profitable. Whereas straight grid results make the potash Corp much more profitable.
Field size and shape will determine the quickness of payoff with shutoffs. Size of machines too. The nice thing is with today's tech you can run so many things. I use my ag leader in every field pass and machine I run. Then they definitely pay. Pull type spraying isn't too bad with shut offs. I went back to one after selling my custom sprayer stuff, not all bad being small time.
I do priority tiling. I place mains with long term goals......but only put laterals in the areas of huge returns....ie 0 becomes 250 corn areas first. Then add later as funds dictate. I bought an old 11 yard scraper for 9k.....needed some seals and a little welder love....but my terrace projects become really very reasonable compared to full hire. The farm I lease long term has had basically no work until 7 years ago. The list of next projects is huge.....including 5 terraces this fall(weather permitting) after the pond build.
You are already on your way to greatness. You did what so many fail to do.....ask for opinions and help. No one wins alone. No matter what a boomer tries to tell you.....
Edited by DobsonAG 9/24/2023 11:30
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Establishing Priorities
