Contemporary Ideas for Increasing Profit

Profit Mapping

Profit mapping seems to be getting more and more buzz these days, and for good reason. For example, Holland and Sons has five locations to service our area of operation. While there are certainly some programs that are working well at one location that could be applied to increase efficiency at other locations, instituting policies uniformly at all locations and expecting an identical response wouldn’t be realistic. Local staff, facility capabilities, and the varying requirements of each store’s local customer base create a different situation at each dealership location.

Likewise, our fields rarely have the same production capabilities as we move from one side to the other. Soil type and drainage capacity are just two of the many variables that will likely impact the production potential of different field areas. Treating all acres the same when we know that there are areas that likely won’t reach our stated production goals makes about as much sense as if Holland’s adopted a management philosophy of running all of their locations absolutely identical to each other.

For several years, most farmers have been producing yield maps during harvest with the use of harvest monitoring systems. While these yield maps show the varying yields across fields, they bring only partial insight into the profit levels of these varying yields.

Profit mapping is the next step in effectively drilling down through the data. Through the establishment of profit zones within a field, we get a clearer view of what areas are making a profit and which ones aren’t, based on both input cost and yield response. In a production system that simply looks at each field on the average (meaning production goals and input levels are based on the average historic production of that field), it’s likely that some of the more productive areas are held back while less productive areas receive more inputs than they can realistically utilize.

Profit mapping gives the operator a clearer vision of different zones within a field. He or she can then analyze the possibility of reaching higher overall profit by treating each zone specific to its production capability, through altering inputs. Moving excess inputs from non-productive zones to zones with higher yield potential can result in higher overall yields with no increase in input cost. Locating less productive zones within your fields can also facilitate the process of identifying the causes of lower average yields in those zones, allowing possible implementation of corrective measures.

In summary, if you’re not already using profit mapping, I would encourage you to at least take a look at it to see if it offers your operation the opportunity to increase profit.

Beer Commercial / Organic Farming

While watching the Super Bowl, one particular beer commercial caught my attention. They advertised that for every six pack purchased by its customers, the company pledged to convert six square feet of farmland to organic production. While obviously there could be a whole conversation held just about how this company expects to guarantee the conversion of farmland to organic production methods or who is going to track their sales to this conversion goal, the clearer message seemed to be that large corporations are hearing a significant call from their consumers for organically produced food and drink products.

First, to be clear: the average consumer in the U.S. has enjoyed the safest, most plentiful and most affordable food supply anywhere in the world. That food supply has largely been made possible by the use of synthetic fertilizers, crop protection pesticides and, yes, even GMO seed varieties. But our current production system isn’t perfect and as long as consumers are willing to pay for the cost of conversion to organic production systems, then we would be wise to recognize marketing opportunities that might support the implementation of new production systems and that could allow us to meet the increase in demand for organically grown crops.

Take some time to think about the concept of organic farming as part of your overall farm operation. Consider how you might be able to convert a small acreage to gain experience and explore marketing opportunities that exist in your area.

One of my favorite definitions of Sustainable Agriculture is that of a three-legged stool. One leg stands for farming practices that are environmentally friendly, another stands for practices that are profitable for the farm operation to incorporate, and the last leg is for practices that are socially acceptable. The last leg is where organic farming falls in. As long as marketing opportunities exist to allow farming operations to incorporate the new practices required, farms should have the ability to convert some acres to meet that demand while maintaining acceptable profit goals.

New Application Technologies

Even if it doesn’t work for you to convert some acreage completely to organic, be aware of technology such as John Deere’s ExactApply nozzle control that is available now on John Deere Self-Propelled Sprayers. ExactApply provides applicators of crop protection products the most precise application system while virtually eliminating overlap and off target drift. The exact amount of product applied equally on every square foot of the field increases product performance while reducing input cost, crop injury due to over application, and is more environmentally friendly. Ask your Holland’s sales representative for more information on ExactApply to see how it can benefit your farm operation.

Also, keep an eye on developing technologies such as Blue River Technology’s “See and Spray.” This technology offers the possibility to apply product only where weeds actually exist, rather than applying weed control products over the entire field. The technology offers the possibility of a large reduction in the overall product volume required to control weed populations in your fields. Again, this reduces input costs and decreases any negative environmental impacts that may exist.

Article written by Gregg Pearson and featured in the 2020 Spring Issue of the Holland Herald newsletter. Gregg is a Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) with over 15 years sales experience at Holland and Sons. He is based out of our Princeton, Illinois location and specializes in application sales. You can contact him with any questions at (815) 875-3838. Click here to view the full newsletter.  Join Holland's email list to receive our newsletter, promotions and other updates.