Alton, Ia | Mike2120 - 12/20/2025 14:13
I would say for me, the planter would more than likely not “roll” if there was a script issue and rain coming, in most cases. There’s too much to be lost not doing it correctly or by abandoning the plan that’s been setup for the whole season.
Edit to add:
I would also argue that variable rate is very significant in final yield. Especially since it is something we can control. There are so many things out of our control, why let something we can control be another “yield issue”?
I've been doing population trials for Pioneer for over 15 years, I believe. Four hybrids, four pops, started 30, 34, 38, 42, now more like 28, 32, 36, 40 or so. 30's for many, since 2020 20" rows. There isn't a huge impact. There is some, don't take me wrong, I invest the time each spring to go over every field, every zone, and have Vdrive's on the planter. It is a benefit, and obviously I feel there is a decent ROI, I just don't believe it's going to add hugely to a field average, "here".
I looked at my Pioneer dealers sales propaganda, most popular hybrid for our region is P05466V. Here is the planting rate estimator from Pioneer.com You can see there is a yield curve and an optimum yield based on soil/yield goals, but it's a relatively flat curve. If you plant a field average rate, there likely will be a yield reduction, but there are far more things gong to happen by harvest impacting yield more. That's what I'm trying to say. VRS, yes, do it if you can swing it, but don't go new pickup shopping just yet.
Edit: Sorry, the X-axis did not come along for the ride. For the vertical green dashed lines, the min pop is 29.3, the max is 32.3 for this picture. If you take a yield goal of say 230, you can see the line for that goal has a long, gradual peak.
Edited by Oliver1 12/24/2025 09:13
 (P05466 (full).png)
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 P05466 (full).png (66KB - 1 downloads)
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Prescription map steps between zones
