| Red man1981 - 10/19/2025 18:44 Exactly,I can manage my fertility thru zone sampling based on soil types. Variable rate, flat spread, whatever I wanna do. I’ve priced upgrading technology on everything, salesman claims it will pay back in just 1 season on my acreage. Mainly in seed savings. Really have a hard time believing him. I can’t remember the total costs for everything but I know it was way up there. A lot like everything thing else, farmers are paying big bucks for things we really don’t need to be successful.
You can do whatever you want to do. That said, whether it would pay for you to variable rate seed depends greatly on how many acres you farm and what kind of variation you have in soil types.
On our ground, variable rate seeding pays (saves) big with minimal investment to do so. The combine had yield mapping capabilities when we bought it used. To variable rate plant by prescription cost me a $1500 unlock. Saving 5 bags of $300 seed paid for the unlock. That was more than covered in 1 year of use.
There's a lot of things that cost big bucks and don't return an ROI. If used properly, yield mapping and variable rate seeding can have a huge ROI and they don't have to cost a lot to implement.
I don't know what type of land you farm but if you farm a lot of point rows/contour and the salesman is including section control (row clutches) in what he is pricing you, it very well could pay for itself in one year through seed savings. The cost of seed overlap adds up quickly and often reduces yield to boot.
|
Yield monitors. Chicken or the egg?
