July 11, 2025 • 33 mins
Sarah and Jodi reflect on the fast-paced spring planting season of 2025, sharing their experiences supporting customers with ADMS software and troubleshooting common prescription issues while managing rapidly changing field conditions.
Situations and questions they cover:
• When to dissolve prescriptions during the export process to optimize controller compatibility
• Understanding the difference between hard breaks and interpolation in prescription maps
• Why you should never dissolve a fully interpolated map without applying rate increments first
• How controller limitations affect prescription exports and formatting requirements
• The importance of creating test prescriptions before heading to the field
• Setting appropriate minimum and maximum rates for fertilizer applications
• Tips for managing controller-specific requirements like single shapefile exports
• How to maintain prescription integrity while meeting equipment limitations
Join us next time for the second half of our conversation about common spring questions here on Ag Geek Speak.
https://gktechinc.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah (00:00):
And now it's time for Ag Geek Speak with GK Technology's,
Sarah and Jodi, friends and Ican't wait to get in the fields
again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Jodi (00:31):
All right, Sarah.
It's been another spring and ofcourse, every spring, folks are
putting out fertilizer, theyare putting out variable rate
seeding rates, and that meansthat there is a lot of questions
for folks like you and Isupporting ADMS.
Sarah (00:45):
It is definitely time to recap the spring questions.
Jodi (00:50):
Jodi, I think there's a lot of really good lessons from
some of these common questions,and I think there are things we
were asked multiple times, right?
So there's no dumb questionshere, it's just going over.
Hey, what were some of thecommon questions and how can we
clear those up and learn fromwhat we learned this spring?
Sarah (01:10):
And of course, there's always some great stories to go
along with it.
Right, Absolutely, you guys arein for a treat.
So I do want to say this is aspring of 2025 and I think we
had a pretty good spring.
I mean, planting season wentrelatively well and started out
(01:31):
drier, so you know, getting thecrop in the ground not so tough.
I think the frost was prettydeep in a couple spots, so
getting that frost to kind ofcome out and um and and get it
so, uh, the the soil bed wasn'tso spongy in some spots was a
little bit of an issue.
But parts of North Dakota got arain in there that helped bring
the frost out in those areasand it seemed like planting
(01:54):
season was pretty fast andfurious and just kind of went
and got done.
What did you see around thestate?
Jodi (02:00):
Jodi, Things went in the field very quickly and I know
I've mentioned this beforealready, but I think about, like
on my own farm, my dad hadstarted planting wheat when it
was like below 32, which is he'salways been known to plant
early, but he said this is thefirst time he's ever done that
at the beginning of April, andwe finished up planting soybeans
(02:20):
last Friday when it was almost95 degrees.
So it's been a quick spring.
I mean just thinking about howmuch the weather has changed,
going from very cold to verywarm so quickly.
I feel that's very similar tohow planting season went across
the state.
It was a little bit more quoteunquote, like wet spongy in the
(02:40):
eastern part of the state, butwhen planters got rolling, they
got rolling and things happened.
Sarah (02:45):
They went and it went fast.
It was like we're going tostart.
And, of course, farmers, trueto their nature, they just go
and they don't, you know, theydon't stop until they get it all
done.
Yeah, so anyway, I think one ofthe things that's really
interesting about a spring likethis is there's so much work
going on in such a compressedtime because it's just go, and I
(03:10):
do think we had some areas thatstarted earlier, but you know,
here it is the middle of May anda lot of the work is already
done.
Yeah, there's some things thatare still going to get finished
up, but by and far and away, youknow, we're pretty much there.
And so within that timeframe,from an ADMS standpoint, in a,
in a software sales supportperson, it sure feels like the
(03:31):
phone just rings off the hookwith tons of questions, and
sometimes we never know whatthey're going to be, and so it's
always interesting to feelthose calls.
Sometimes I end up learningjust as much as the customer
does, and there's some greatthings.
So, Jodi, what's probably themost popular question that we
got this spring?
Jodi (03:49):
Ooh, that's a good question.
I honestly think the biggestquestion I got this spring was
when to dissolve prescriptionsand when not to dissolve
prescriptions.
That was probably the biggestone, and I know there's been
changes within ADMS since I'vestarted and before then, where
we brought in that concept ofdissolving ports and not but
(04:11):
just to back up a little bit andjust talk about what we're,
what we're doing when we talkabout dissolving an export and
these are shape file exportsthat we are talking about.
Sarah (04:22):
We're not talking about FODs or XML files.
Yeah, talking that we'retalking about.
We're not talking about FODs orXML files.
Yeah, we're talking aboutshapefile prescription exports.
Jodi (04:29):
So we've gone in, we've already made the GRD surface
that shows what our variablerate fertilizer or variable rate
input would be, and so whatwe're doing is we're now
exporting that into, basicallytranslating that into a language
that rate controllers can usewhen we do an export Right, and
(04:51):
so in this process, there is anoption to dissolve and not to
dissolve, and basically whatthis?
Why this is important isbecause controllers can only
handle so many data right, andso when we have higher
resolution exports, or moresquares or a higher resolution
(05:13):
of data, it can be challengingfor some controllers to handle
that many data points.
Sarah (05:19):
But I think it's important to remember too that
when we are exporting outshapefiles, when you're talking
about all these data points,there's a lot of different data
that's going into shapefiles.
We've got vertices, like youmentioned, we've got polygon
counts, we've got the number ofrates going out to controllers,
(05:41):
and so all of these things,controllers and different,
different kinds of controllerscan handle different amounts of
these kinds of data.
Yeah, and so we have to thinkabout that in terms of what the
particular controllers thatwe're dealing with, what is it
going to accept?
What is it going to read?
Jodi (05:57):
yep, and, and so that's when we might have to use
something like dissolving andexport in order to make it so
that our exported prescriptionis readable by the X controller.
And for those of you that arefamiliar with ADMS, think back
to the rate controller exporttable within the ADMS manual.
(06:18):
It tells you what you need toknow about different controllers
and how you need to do things.
But the point I want to makehere is okay, so when do we
actually dissolve and when do wenot dissolve what really is
dissolving?
Okay, so what does it actuallymean when we dissolve and export
?
What it means is that we'regoing to take any sort of rate
that's the same as another rateand combine it together, right?
(06:40):
So say, if we have a cornseeding rate export and we go
from 25,000 to 32,000 seeds andtypically what we'd recommend is
that you would do hard breaksor break those up into
increments of 1,000, so thatwhen you go to export this
prescription, you can choose todissolve that export and then
(07:03):
combine in a single polygon onyour export that single rate.
So now, instead of having ratesthat range from 25,000 all the
way up to 32,000 so that's 7,000different rates that are
possible you're only going from25,000, 26,000, etc.
Up to 32,000.
That means we can reduce thenumber of polygons that we're
(07:25):
exporting out, we're reducingthe number of vertices and we're
reducing the complexity of thatfile that we're sending out to
the controller.
And so what dissolving anexport does is just makes these
exports, these prescriptions, alittle bit more simple for
controllers and it makes iteasier to handle.
And so, sarah, what I want toask you about that is you know
(07:48):
what are the cases when we wantto dissolve and when we don't
want to dissolve, like how doyou think about using that and
not using that?
Sarah (07:55):
Well, and I think I do think you kind of mentioned the
concept of hard breaks in there,and I think it's really
important to remember that ifwe're starting with a fully
interpolated prescription andthat's what we are going to
dissolve as the output weactually have to group together
those rates.
And you mentioned that thousandincrement, and so usually we're
rounding to a thousand seeds,for example, so that there's
(08:18):
going to be a rate change everythousand seeds.
Okay, so you're not going tohave a rate at like 2,500.
You're going to have a rate at2,000 and you're going to have a
rate at 3,000.
There's not going to be one inthe middle.
Jodi (08:33):
And Sarah, can I ask you, like, when we interpolate, why
do we get values that go inbetween 25,000 and 26,000?
Like, how does interpolationinteract with having all those
different rates?
Sarah (08:46):
I think that is a really great question and actually
something that's reallyimportant.
And it also goes to anotherquestion that I get all the time
in the spring of the year andmaybe you get this too is why
hard breaks and when.
And honestly, going back tothis dissolving conversation,
because it all kind ofcirculates around and kind of
like topples on top of eachother we are making a circle
(09:08):
here.
There is a point to thisconversation.
What happens is we want to beable to use hard brakes for
things like dissolving.
You need to have rates that canand areas of the field that can
be grouped together into onething.
That's the whole point ofdissolving is that you group
(09:29):
together everything with thatsame number and it becomes a
polygon, regardless of thegeographic location within the
field.
So you can have disconnectedpolygons that are now seen as
one polygon because the unifyingidentifier is that rate, which
is really fun.
But to get there, backing up towhen are we using hard breaks
(09:52):
and when are we interpolatingand what is interpolating
actually accomplishing?
Okay, well, let's back up andtalk about zones here for a
second.
When we make a zone map based inproductivity across the field,
oftentimes we're taking actualimages, satellite images and we
end up with varying oftentimesNDVI values across the field or
(10:16):
values across the field whichare depicting that productivity.
You could do this with yieldmaps if you wanted to and you
could see how the yield isconstantly changing across the
field.
It's not the same.
Basically, what we're doingwhen we make zones is we are
grouping together areas of thefield that act similarly to each
(10:36):
other.
We're using statistics, right?
If you've ever even seen, liketest plot data from a cornfield,
are these numbers significantlydifferent or not?
Just because they might be oneor two bushels away, that might
not be a significant difference,but there is a change in that
area, right?
Jodi (10:54):
What I hear is like, even though you've got five zones in
a field right, Not every part ofthat dark green zone or that
dark red zone is going to actthe same way.
There's still variation withinthe different zone breaks that
you've created.
Sarah (11:08):
That's exactly what I'm talking about, jodi, is that
when we've got that zone,statistically all those values
within that one color of zoneare statistically the same.
That's why it's a zone, butwithin that you probably still
have a little bit of variability.
That's why it's a zone, butwithin that you probably still
have a little bit of variability.
(11:29):
And so when we have fullinterpolation on our map we
assign a rate into the darkgreen zone, the light green zone
, the yellow zone, the orangeand the red, and when we do that
it's going to change the ratewithin that zone a little bit
because the values change asthey move and interpolate across
to the next zone.
So now when we're assigninghard breaks, when we take that
(11:54):
fully interpolated map that hasthat constant variation going
across the entire field, theentire prescription, we bring
that over into the map window.
Again for those of you outthere that are ADMS users, and
even though that fullyinterpolated map is probably the
absolute, most correctagronomically thing that we
(12:15):
could do in that field, becauseit's already describing that
infinite variability that we'vegot out there, we still need to
make it work in that controllerand there are controllers out
there that just absolutely haveto have those hard breaks.
And so from here, once we couldtake a look at that picture, we
could think about things interms of are we working with
(12:35):
fertilizer?
Are we working with seed?
What kind of seed are weworking with?
Are we working with soybeanseed, where we're planting
hundreds of thousands of seedsper acre?
Or are we working with cornseed, where we're planting, you
know, 20,000 seeds per acre?
And what can we group togetherfor increments that make sense?
So, generally speaking, I don'tknow how you do it, jodi, but
(12:59):
I'm kind of checking out 10,000seeds for soybeans.
That's kind of my round toincrement that I've been using
this year, especially on the airseeders.
I've got some guys that aretrying to manage iron chlorosis
in soybeans and so in thosescenarios we're really trying to
push that population and thoseiron chlorotic areas and get
those really push thepopulations.
When you concentrate soybeanseed together in areas prone to
(13:23):
iron chlorosis, it can helpextract iron from the soil.
So I've got places out therewhere we are pushing the
population up to 190.
And even a couple of placeswhere I've got some guys that
are still want to do 200,000,which is great for that, but
then likewise, they stillprobably have some issues with
white mold and in thosescenarios we need to actually
(13:43):
drive that population down so wecan get airflow through the
canopy.
But we got to be careful withhow low you're going to go.
So that's the caveat that I'mputting out there for this
podcast you want to make surethat you're not going to limit
your yield either.
But this year actually drovedown some of those populations
down to 100,000 seeds.
(14:03):
So that's a pretty bigdifference, right?
100,000 up to 190.
And so we were using 10,000seeds on that.
And if you think about whatthat means, if you use that
increment from 100,000 up to 190, that means we really only have
, you know, nine, 10 rates outthere in the field.
That makes it that number ofrates is a lot easier to
(14:25):
translate over.
And I don't know, jodi, what youfound.
I'd be curious to know what youthink about this.
But, generally speaking, I likethe way my prescription maps
look better when I fullyinterpolate it, when I'm writing
the prescription.
So I bring it in and I actuallyhave that fully interpolated
map the most to me, the bestagronomic map that I can
(14:49):
possibly make for that scenario.
But then I like to round toincrement after the fact.
I think it keeps the agronomicintegrity the best.
But that's just what I thinkwhen I'm looking at the map Jodi
.
What's your experiences with it?
Jodi (15:02):
Yeah, no, I agree, and I think it depends on, like, how
you build that map right,because what there be cases
where, like you can'tnecessarily interpolate or say,
for instance, like it when youare combining images and
combining layers together andthat's how you're making your
final map works, and I'd say formost everybody out there,
(15:27):
that's what you're going to endup with and interpolation works
fantastically.
Like if you are modifying a mapat the end and putting in a lot
of different mod zones and kindof messing with the values.
That way interpolation looks alittle bit different on the back
end.
So that's my only caveat here.
But no, I completely agree.
I think the maps look best whenyou go into merge zone results.
(15:48):
You put in the values of whatyou want your rates to be,
interpolate the output and thenaround to increment once it
comes back out the other side.
So you've got a field with fivezones and you didn't interpolate
the output.
If you had five rates that youwanted for corn, again using the
(16:09):
25,000 to 32,000 populationexample, if you didn't
interpolate the output, if youonly had 25,000 to 32,000, you'd
end up with five populationvalues at the end too, without
any of those gradations inbetween those zones that you'd
get with interpolating youroutput.
So I think it just in that wayyou can get more precise by
(16:33):
interpolating and then also helpto make it easier for planters
to adjust the rate.
And again, like stuff's alwaysimproving, I'm sure things will
probably get easier for thingsto adjust, but having some
gradation is very helpful forthe mechanical side of getting
things to flow and gettingthings to adjust.
But having some gradation isvery helpful for the mechanical
side of getting things to flowand getting things to be at the
right rate that you want them tobe at the end.
(16:53):
So, yes, I I agree witheverything you just said, sarah.
Sarah (16:58):
Now I do want to make note that there are some places
where I am not a big fan ofdissolving, and for sure you
know, maybe it's too soon toeven start that part of that
conversation, but I think it'simportant to note that again.
(17:21):
When we're trying to exportthose data, you know we're
trying to deal with translatingdifferent kinds of data and
certain controllers handle thosedifferent kinds of data and
certain controllers handle thosedifferent kinds of data better
or worse.
So, for example, the number ofvertices, the number of polygons
, the number, the size of thefile you got to, you got to go
in and check and see how bigthat file size is.
(17:43):
And so it's interesting becausein the last year, when it comes
to dissolving, if I haven'tdone especially a large enough
round to increment on somefertilizer rates, I've been
having some issues with somevipers out there actually taking
some of those prescriptionsbecause it's too many vertices.
So I actually went back to notdissolving those prescriptions
(18:10):
and just going back to the goodold-fashioned grids with all000
polygons out there forcontrollers like Vipers, and so
we still have to watch that.
But I'm finding more successgoing back to that old-fashioned
(18:34):
way of just using that gridpolygon, keeping it fully
interpolated, you know watchingthe number of rates from there
and where it needs to read ifit's the center of the polygon,
or you know wherever that needsto go and then exporting that
out.
And there's some othercontrollers that are like that
too.
Jodi (18:51):
I think the two things that I keep in mind when I think
about dissolving I typicallywill dissolve when I've rounded
to an increment, right, so I'vegot you know fewer rates and
like whether that's 10 to 20,whatever the point is is like I
don't want to take a fullyinterpolated map and then
(19:12):
dissolve it when I'm exporting.
Sarah (19:14):
And the other case is is that one thing that happens when
oh, jodi, can I just back upone minute, Because you said
something that's reallyimportant right there.
Never take a fully interpolatedmap and dissolve it, for the
people in the back.
Say that one more time, jodi,never dissolve a fully
interpolated map and dissolve itFor the people in the back.
Say that one more time.
Jodi (19:29):
Jodi, never dissolve a fully interpolated map Again,
like we just talked about, whatdissolving does is it takes all
those rates that are the sameand creates a polygon for them.
And so if you've got usingSarah's example if you've got
100,000 soybean seeds, up to200,000 soybean seeds in the
same map, you hypotheticallyhave 200,000 discrete rates.
(19:52):
That could be going on, and sowhat dissolving in that case
would do would be creating arate for a polygon of a rate,
100,000 through 200,000.
So you can imagine that thatwould cause some issues.
So if you have a fullyinterpolated map, do not
dissolve it.
That's really good information,right there you will find out
(20:14):
that there are issues, andthat's OK.
Well, it's not OK.
Sarah (20:17):
Don't do that, we'll just leave it there, especially if
there's rain in the forecast andthe floor is sitting right
there.
That is a bad day.
Exactly, exactly the otherthing, I think about, and I
think it's more.
Jodi (20:27):
you know, I can think of a specific planter planter
monitor that requires the same.
So, like when you're dissolvingoutput, it has to be separated
into separate shapefiles, right?
So like when you click dissolveoutput, the other checkbox
below it will also say createseparate shape files.
(20:49):
So if you are exporting to acontroller that cannot use
separate shape files fordifferent rates and again refer
back to the ADMS exportingmatrix to see what and where
Sarah's going to put it up inthe video, even though you can't
see it.
Sarah (21:08):
Sarah is flipping to that page.
I'm going to find us the pagenumber.
Jodi (21:11):
But that's another case, like I can think of a specific
planter monitor where you needto have all rates in a single
state file.
That would be a case where youcan't, even though you have hard
breaks or discrete values, fewnumber of rates where you could
dissolve, where you wouldn't beable to dissolve because it
wouldn't work in that specificmonitor.
So those are just the twothings that I keep in mind when
(21:34):
I think about not to dissolve anoutput or dissolve a
prescription.
Sarah (21:39):
That's really important information and I think it's OK
for us to mention that.
If you want to have successgetting prescriptions into Borgo
, the Topcon controllers, that'sone that you have to have all
of your prescriptions on thesame shape file.
And that's important becausethat's for Borgo carts and you
(22:00):
know they've got those carts arehuge, they usually have huge
tools on them.
They've got, you know, lots ofdifferent bins so they can
variable rate a lot of differentproducts, but each bin in the
cart with its own separateprescription.
All of that has to be on thesame shapefile.
So and it gets to be achallenge because a lot of times
(22:22):
these Borgo carts are gettingused out in fields that are huge
.
You know they're really popularin Montana, saskatchewan.
They came from the big prairiesof Canada, it's where they're
from.
So you know, a couple thousandacres in a field not a big deal
for these carts to take on.
Jodi (22:40):
I'm really glad you mentioned that, Sarah, because
that is not the controller I wasthinking of.
So I learned something today.
Oh, what was yours?
Because that is not thecontroller I was thinking of.
So I learned something today.
Oh, what was yours?
So the older generationprecision planting monitors, you
can't have different rates andlike they all have to be in the
same file.
So, like newer monitors,they're fine.
But and maybe it's justseparate products, but still the
(23:03):
same thing If you're exportingout, they have to be in the same
.
Sarah (23:08):
If you've got separate bins, you could be having seed
going down with one, you couldbe having fertilizer going down
with one, but all of that has tobe in the same shape file.
Yes, yep, and same.
Jodi (23:21):
Yeah, for precision planting monitors, if you've got
two hybrids it has to be in thesame shape file.
It cannot be separate.
But again, this is such a greatconversation because some of
these monitors, you know, evenyou know there's different
generations of precisionplanting monitors and they can
(23:41):
kind of vary in terms of whatthey can and cannot read and
there's different monitors fordifferent equipment and they all
kind of have these littleeccentricities.
So you know, maybe you don'tget it right on the first time
when you export and put it intoa cart or a monitor, and that's
okay, that's going to happen.
Like you can't know everythingabout every single monitor.
Like over time you'll build upthat experience and know.
(24:02):
But this is why it's importantto do like a yard test file so
that you can figure out Testprescriptions.
Sarah (24:12):
Yes, I could advocate the test prescription for everybody
to use.
Holy Hannah, I mean, that wouldjust If everybody would just go
out and try a test prescriptionin the spring of the year.
Jodi (24:23):
It would be great, yep, because you know it's so funny
because, again, it's easy tomake a prescription like just a
general prescription, right,it's as simple as saying taking
your fertilizer map, yourVaborite fertilizer map, and
saying export.
The hard thing is figuring out.
You know what are the detailsthat I've got to put in here to
(24:44):
make it so that it's readable bythe specific controller that
I'm putting in.
And, of course, as you get morethings going on more bins, more
products it gets a little bitmore complicated.
But again, details.
You can either call us at GKthat we work with all these
things Sometimes we don't alwaysknow all the answers but we can
help you connect to somebodythat does or you know, when you
(25:07):
work with these things longenough, you gain that experience
.
Sarah (25:10):
But I do want to back up, though, because we were talking
about dissolving and that wholeidea that you can't separate
out shape files, and I think wewere talking about, like Virgo
cards and things like that, andso it's still important to
remember that, if you're gonnaexport out the old-fashioned way
with the old grid, there aredefinitely places where that is
still extremely acceptable,wonderful and the absolute best
(25:35):
way to go.
So, even though we've got thesefancy ways of dissolving and
grouping together rates and andthose sorts of things, just
remember sometimes theold-fashioned way is the way to
go.
Yes, you don't always have todissolve, right, but you do need
to make sure that you'rekeeping it under 10 000 polygons
, generally speaking, and forthose of you with some of those
(25:55):
controllers that need like 1500polygons, like 1500 um, then you
will probably be dissolving androunding to increment.
Jodi (26:07):
Just so you can get better detail.
Absolutely right, Because whenwe export a prescription using
the grids, we reduce like ifwe're trying to get under 10,000
polygons what we do is weincrease the size of the polygon
, right, so decrease theresolution, take out a little
bit of detail, but we increasethat polygon size until we're
(26:27):
under that 1,500 polygon mark.
So you can imagine, if you'regoing from 20,000 down to 1,500,
you're going to have toincrease that resolution a lot
and lose a lot of detail inorder to meet that 1,500 limit.
And so, yeah, in that case,dissolving to an increment,
making those hard breaks andthen dissolving the output when
(26:51):
you export, it is probably areally good thing just to
preserve the integrity of theoriginal prescription.
Sarah (26:57):
Absolutely, absolutely.
That makes a lot of sense.
Another question that I feellike I always get in the spring
of the year is about enforcingmax and min rates.
Yes, I would love for you totalk about this, sarah.
Well, it's kind of a big dealright.
There's fertilizer applicatorsout there.
This is generally more of afertilizer spreader issue than
(27:19):
anything else, but it's one ofthose things.
You just got to be cognizant ofthe equipment's ability to
apply low rates.
For certain controllers, zerorates are really complicated
usually a liquid thing going onthere but for dry fertilizer
spreaders, applying low ratescan be really hard and it's
(27:40):
better to go to a zero rate orand implement a minimum rate.
So there's, if you're ever inthe merge zone results file or
and you're writing aprescription, there's a box in
there that you can check thatsays enforce max and min rates.
And it's the same thing whenyou're exporting out in the
shape grid there's an enforcemax and min rates and what it
(28:03):
does is when you set up thatfertilizer like let's say you've
got 4600 set up to be afertilizer in your fertilizer
database in the software thereis a place at the bottom where
it says max rate and min rateand you can go in it, edit these
things and save them and that'sin the setup fertilizer section
(28:26):
, right?
Jodi (28:28):
Yes, that is correct.
Sarah (28:29):
Nice, that's pretty good.
There's a lot of buttons in thesoftware.
Sometimes remembering whereeverything is is kind of a
challenge to me.
Jodi (28:37):
But yes, when I'm on the phone with people.
I open ADMS so that I tell themexactly the right button.
Sarah (28:43):
That's what I do too.
We want to help you as much aspossible.
Jodi (28:48):
We're trying to do our best so that we're on the same
page, okay.
Sarah (28:53):
I have had a couple of victory calls where I've been
like driving someplace and youknow a customer calls or
whatever, and they're like, hey,I'm trying to, I'm trying to do
this, whatever it is, and soI'm trying to remember in my
mind where all the buttons are,and I would.
I would just like to announcethat I've actually had a couple
(29:13):
of victories with that now where, like I, I remembered the
buttons and the guys like, hey,that totally worked, it was
great.
Anyway, I digress.
Jodi (29:29):
I dissolve, just kidding, anyway, sorry.
Okay, so we have the minimumand maximum rate set up and set
up fertilizers.
Sarah (29:39):
It's in the fertilizer.
So if you set like the minimumrate on that urea, that 4600
fertilizer, to like 50 or 60pounds, it's going to stop at
that number, so at 50 pounds.
If there's any rates in yourprescription between zero and 50
pounds, what it's going to dois if it's 25 pounds or above,
(30:03):
it's going to push that rate upto 50 pounds.
If it's below that 25 pounds,it's going to turn it into a
zero rate so that fertilizerspreader does not have to figure
out how to spread 20 poundsbecause that's such a low rate
that you're not going to get anaccurate application at that low
volume.
Now I actually have somefertilizer suppliers that I work
(30:26):
with that have their minimumrate set at 80 pounds.
So you know it's important tomake sure that we've got enough
volume going through thespreader to make sure we can
control those rates well.
Jodi (30:41):
Absolutely.
One thing too, like on theother side as well a maximum
rate, right, the spedders thatwe work with, they can't, all I
know.
Sometimes, when I put you knowguidelines together or like a
fertilizer program together,sometimes it's just like, hey, I
need 800 pounds or 850 or 900,950 pounds of the blend here,
(31:02):
but not all speders can handleputting down 950 pounds of
fertilizer.
So, a I need to either figureout how to change my blend to
meet my N rates, because that'swhat I'm typically blending for
if I've got a lot going on but A, backing up a little bit, I
need to figure out, a for thespreader that this fertilizer
(31:22):
rack is going to, what is theirmaximum rate?
They are not all the same,they're probably pretty similar.
But like just check, I know,like when I set up for just
thinking about fertilizer, for,like my own farm, right, I can
only put so much through thecart that the fan can handle in
(31:43):
terms of both seed andfertilizer.
So I need to be cognizant ofthat.
Same thing for spreaders.
Typically, if it's over 900pounds, that's a problem.
So keep that in mind.
Either account for that whenyou're putting together your
fertilizer programs or make surethat you've got that maximum
rate of what that spreaderyou're writing to can handle in
(32:03):
your setup fertilizer side.
Sarah (32:05):
And if you're applying like more than 900 pounds,
you're probably spreading lime.
Jodi (32:13):
Or blending in one bin a lot of stuff.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
This is a really good place tostop the first half of our
conversation about common springquestions.
We've gotten here at GKTechnology.
I've learned so much just inthis 30 minutes and I think you
guys will too, so please join usnext time for the second half
(32:34):
of our conversation here on AgGeek Speak.
And now it's time for Ag Geek Speak with GK Technology's,
Sarah and Jodi, friends and Ican't wait to get in the fields
again.
No, I can't wait to get in thefields again.
Jodi (00:31):
All right, Sarah.
It's been another spring and ofcourse, every spring, folks are
putting out fertilizer, theyare putting out variable rate
seeding rates, and that meansthat there is a lot of questions
for folks like you and Isupporting ADMS.
Sarah (00:45):
It is definitely time to recap the spring questions.
Jodi (00:50):
Jodi, I think there's a lot of really good lessons from
some of these common questions,and I think there are things we
were asked multiple times, right?
So there's no dumb questionshere, it's just going over.
Hey, what were some of thecommon questions and how can we
clear those up and learn fromwhat we learned this spring?
Sarah (01:10):
And of course, there's always some great stories to go
along with it.
Right, Absolutely, you guys arein for a treat.
So I do want to say this is aspring of 2025 and I think we
had a pretty good spring.
I mean, planting season wentrelatively well and started out
(01:31):
drier, so you know, getting thecrop in the ground not so tough.
I think the frost was prettydeep in a couple spots, so
getting that frost to kind ofcome out and um and and get it
so, uh, the the soil bed wasn'tso spongy in some spots was a
little bit of an issue.
But parts of North Dakota got arain in there that helped bring
the frost out in those areasand it seemed like planting
(01:54):
season was pretty fast andfurious and just kind of went
and got done.
What did you see around thestate?
Jodi (02:00):
Jodi, Things went in the field very quickly and I know
I've mentioned this beforealready, but I think about, like
on my own farm, my dad hadstarted planting wheat when it
was like below 32, which is he'salways been known to plant
early, but he said this is thefirst time he's ever done that
at the beginning of April, andwe finished up planting soybeans
(02:20):
last Friday when it was almost95 degrees.
So it's been a quick spring.
I mean just thinking about howmuch the weather has changed,
going from very cold to verywarm so quickly.
I feel that's very similar tohow planting season went across
the state.
It was a little bit more quoteunquote, like wet spongy in the
(02:40):
eastern part of the state, butwhen planters got rolling, they
got rolling and things happened.
Sarah (02:45):
They went and it went fast.
It was like we're going tostart.
And, of course, farmers, trueto their nature, they just go
and they don't, you know, theydon't stop until they get it all
done.
Yeah, so anyway, I think one ofthe things that's really
interesting about a spring likethis is there's so much work
going on in such a compressedtime because it's just go, and I
(03:10):
do think we had some areas thatstarted earlier, but you know,
here it is the middle of May anda lot of the work is already
done.
Yeah, there's some things thatare still going to get finished
up, but by and far and away, youknow, we're pretty much there.
And so within that timeframe,from an ADMS standpoint, in a,
in a software sales supportperson, it sure feels like the
(03:31):
phone just rings off the hookwith tons of questions, and
sometimes we never know whatthey're going to be, and so it's
always interesting to feelthose calls.
Sometimes I end up learningjust as much as the customer
does, and there's some greatthings.
So, Jodi, what's probably themost popular question that we
got this spring?
Jodi (03:49):
Ooh, that's a good question.
I honestly think the biggestquestion I got this spring was
when to dissolve prescriptionsand when not to dissolve
prescriptions.
That was probably the biggestone, and I know there's been
changes within ADMS since I'vestarted and before then, where
we brought in that concept ofdissolving ports and not but
(04:11):
just to back up a little bit andjust talk about what we're,
what we're doing when we talkabout dissolving an export and
these are shape file exportsthat we are talking about.
Sarah (04:22):
We're not talking about FODs or XML files.
Yeah, talking that we'retalking about.
We're not talking about FODs orXML files.
Yeah, we're talking aboutshapefile prescription exports.
Jodi (04:29):
So we've gone in, we've already made the GRD surface
that shows what our variablerate fertilizer or variable rate
input would be, and so whatwe're doing is we're now
exporting that into, basicallytranslating that into a language
that rate controllers can usewhen we do an export Right, and
(04:51):
so in this process, there is anoption to dissolve and not to
dissolve, and basically whatthis?
Why this is important isbecause controllers can only
handle so many data right, andso when we have higher
resolution exports, or moresquares or a higher resolution
(05:13):
of data, it can be challengingfor some controllers to handle
that many data points.
Sarah (05:19):
But I think it's important to remember too that
when we are exporting outshapefiles, when you're talking
about all these data points,there's a lot of different data
that's going into shapefiles.
We've got vertices, like youmentioned, we've got polygon
counts, we've got the number ofrates going out to controllers,
(05:41):
and so all of these things,controllers and different,
different kinds of controllerscan handle different amounts of
these kinds of data.
Yeah, and so we have to thinkabout that in terms of what the
particular controllers thatwe're dealing with, what is it
going to accept?
What is it going to read?
Jodi (05:57):
yep, and, and so that's when we might have to use
something like dissolving andexport in order to make it so
that our exported prescriptionis readable by the X controller.
And for those of you that arefamiliar with ADMS, think back
to the rate controller exporttable within the ADMS manual.
(06:18):
It tells you what you need toknow about different controllers
and how you need to do things.
But the point I want to makehere is okay, so when do we
actually dissolve and when do wenot dissolve what really is
dissolving?
Okay, so what does it actuallymean when we dissolve and export
?
What it means is that we'regoing to take any sort of rate
that's the same as another rateand combine it together, right?
(06:40):
So say, if we have a cornseeding rate export and we go
from 25,000 to 32,000 seeds andtypically what we'd recommend is
that you would do hard breaksor break those up into
increments of 1,000, so thatwhen you go to export this
prescription, you can choose todissolve that export and then
(07:03):
combine in a single polygon onyour export that single rate.
So now, instead of having ratesthat range from 25,000 all the
way up to 32,000 so that's 7,000different rates that are
possible you're only going from25,000, 26,000, etc.
Up to 32,000.
That means we can reduce thenumber of polygons that we're
(07:25):
exporting out, we're reducingthe number of vertices and we're
reducing the complexity of thatfile that we're sending out to
the controller.
And so what dissolving anexport does is just makes these
exports, these prescriptions, alittle bit more simple for
controllers and it makes iteasier to handle.
And so, sarah, what I want toask you about that is you know
(07:48):
what are the cases when we wantto dissolve and when we don't
want to dissolve, like how doyou think about using that and
not using that?
Sarah (07:55):
Well, and I think I do think you kind of mentioned the
concept of hard breaks in there,and I think it's really
important to remember that ifwe're starting with a fully
interpolated prescription andthat's what we are going to
dissolve as the output weactually have to group together
those rates.
And you mentioned that thousandincrement, and so usually we're
rounding to a thousand seeds,for example, so that there's
(08:18):
going to be a rate change everythousand seeds.
Okay, so you're not going tohave a rate at like 2,500.
You're going to have a rate at2,000 and you're going to have a
rate at 3,000.
There's not going to be one inthe middle.
Jodi (08:33):
And Sarah, can I ask you, like, when we interpolate, why
do we get values that go inbetween 25,000 and 26,000?
Like, how does interpolationinteract with having all those
different rates?
Sarah (08:46):
I think that is a really great question and actually
something that's reallyimportant.
And it also goes to anotherquestion that I get all the time
in the spring of the year andmaybe you get this too is why
hard breaks and when.
And honestly, going back tothis dissolving conversation,
because it all kind ofcirculates around and kind of
like topples on top of eachother we are making a circle
(09:08):
here.
There is a point to thisconversation.
What happens is we want to beable to use hard brakes for
things like dissolving.
You need to have rates that canand areas of the field that can
be grouped together into onething.
That's the whole point ofdissolving is that you group
(09:29):
together everything with thatsame number and it becomes a
polygon, regardless of thegeographic location within the
field.
So you can have disconnectedpolygons that are now seen as
one polygon because the unifyingidentifier is that rate, which
is really fun.
But to get there, backing up towhen are we using hard breaks
(09:52):
and when are we interpolatingand what is interpolating
actually accomplishing?
Okay, well, let's back up andtalk about zones here for a
second.
When we make a zone map based inproductivity across the field,
oftentimes we're taking actualimages, satellite images and we
end up with varying oftentimesNDVI values across the field or
(10:16):
values across the field whichare depicting that productivity.
You could do this with yieldmaps if you wanted to and you
could see how the yield isconstantly changing across the
field.
It's not the same.
Basically, what we're doingwhen we make zones is we are
grouping together areas of thefield that act similarly to each
(10:36):
other.
We're using statistics, right?
If you've ever even seen, liketest plot data from a cornfield,
are these numbers significantlydifferent or not?
Just because they might be oneor two bushels away, that might
not be a significant difference,but there is a change in that
area, right?
Jodi (10:54):
What I hear is like, even though you've got five zones in
a field right, Not every part ofthat dark green zone or that
dark red zone is going to actthe same way.
There's still variation withinthe different zone breaks that
you've created.
Sarah (11:08):
That's exactly what I'm talking about, jodi, is that
when we've got that zone,statistically all those values
within that one color of zoneare statistically the same.
That's why it's a zone, butwithin that you probably still
have a little bit of variability.
That's why it's a zone, butwithin that you probably still
have a little bit of variability.
(11:29):
And so when we have fullinterpolation on our map we
assign a rate into the darkgreen zone, the light green zone
, the yellow zone, the orangeand the red, and when we do that
it's going to change the ratewithin that zone a little bit
because the values change asthey move and interpolate across
to the next zone.
So now when we're assigninghard breaks, when we take that
(11:54):
fully interpolated map that hasthat constant variation going
across the entire field, theentire prescription, we bring
that over into the map window.
Again for those of you outthere that are ADMS users, and
even though that fullyinterpolated map is probably the
absolute, most correctagronomically thing that we
(12:15):
could do in that field, becauseit's already describing that
infinite variability that we'vegot out there, we still need to
make it work in that controllerand there are controllers out
there that just absolutely haveto have those hard breaks.
And so from here, once we couldtake a look at that picture, we
could think about things interms of are we working with
(12:35):
fertilizer?
Are we working with seed?
What kind of seed are weworking with?
Are we working with soybeanseed, where we're planting
hundreds of thousands of seedsper acre?
Or are we working with cornseed, where we're planting, you
know, 20,000 seeds per acre?
And what can we group togetherfor increments that make sense?
So, generally speaking, I don'tknow how you do it, jodi, but
(12:59):
I'm kind of checking out 10,000seeds for soybeans.
That's kind of my round toincrement that I've been using
this year, especially on the airseeders.
I've got some guys that aretrying to manage iron chlorosis
in soybeans and so in thosescenarios we're really trying to
push that population and thoseiron chlorotic areas and get
those really push thepopulations.
When you concentrate soybeanseed together in areas prone to
(13:23):
iron chlorosis, it can helpextract iron from the soil.
So I've got places out therewhere we are pushing the
population up to 190.
And even a couple of placeswhere I've got some guys that
are still want to do 200,000,which is great for that, but
then likewise, they stillprobably have some issues with
white mold and in thosescenarios we need to actually
(13:43):
drive that population down so wecan get airflow through the
canopy.
But we got to be careful withhow low you're going to go.
So that's the caveat that I'mputting out there for this
podcast you want to make surethat you're not going to limit
your yield either.
But this year actually drovedown some of those populations
down to 100,000 seeds.
(14:03):
So that's a pretty bigdifference, right?
100,000 up to 190.
And so we were using 10,000seeds on that.
And if you think about whatthat means, if you use that
increment from 100,000 up to 190, that means we really only have
, you know, nine, 10 rates outthere in the field.
That makes it that number ofrates is a lot easier to
(14:25):
translate over.
And I don't know, jodi, what youfound.
I'd be curious to know what youthink about this.
But, generally speaking, I likethe way my prescription maps
look better when I fullyinterpolate it, when I'm writing
the prescription.
So I bring it in and I actuallyhave that fully interpolated
map the most to me, the bestagronomic map that I can
(14:49):
possibly make for that scenario.
But then I like to round toincrement after the fact.
I think it keeps the agronomicintegrity the best.
But that's just what I thinkwhen I'm looking at the map Jodi
.
What's your experiences with it?
Jodi (15:02):
Yeah, no, I agree, and I think it depends on, like, how
you build that map right,because what there be cases
where, like you can'tnecessarily interpolate or say,
for instance, like it when youare combining images and
combining layers together andthat's how you're making your
final map works, and I'd say formost everybody out there,
(15:27):
that's what you're going to endup with and interpolation works
fantastically.
Like if you are modifying a mapat the end and putting in a lot
of different mod zones and kindof messing with the values.
That way interpolation looks alittle bit different on the back
end.
So that's my only caveat here.
But no, I completely agree.
I think the maps look best whenyou go into merge zone results.
(15:48):
You put in the values of whatyou want your rates to be,
interpolate the output and thenaround to increment once it
comes back out the other side.
So you've got a field with fivezones and you didn't interpolate
the output.
If you had five rates that youwanted for corn, again using the
(16:09):
25,000 to 32,000 populationexample, if you didn't
interpolate the output, if youonly had 25,000 to 32,000, you'd
end up with five populationvalues at the end too, without
any of those gradations inbetween those zones that you'd
get with interpolating youroutput.
So I think it just in that wayyou can get more precise by
(16:33):
interpolating and then also helpto make it easier for planters
to adjust the rate.
And again, like stuff's alwaysimproving, I'm sure things will
probably get easier for thingsto adjust, but having some
gradation is very helpful forthe mechanical side of getting
things to flow and gettingthings to adjust.
But having some gradation isvery helpful for the mechanical
side of getting things to flowand getting things to be at the
right rate that you want them tobe at the end.
(16:53):
So, yes, I I agree witheverything you just said, sarah.
Sarah (16:58):
Now I do want to make note that there are some places
where I am not a big fan ofdissolving, and for sure you
know, maybe it's too soon toeven start that part of that
conversation, but I think it'simportant to note that again.
(17:21):
When we're trying to exportthose data, you know we're
trying to deal with translatingdifferent kinds of data and
certain controllers handle thosedifferent kinds of data and
certain controllers handle thosedifferent kinds of data better
or worse.
So, for example, the number ofvertices, the number of polygons
, the number, the size of thefile you got to, you got to go
in and check and see how bigthat file size is.
(17:43):
And so it's interesting becausein the last year, when it comes
to dissolving, if I haven'tdone especially a large enough
round to increment on somefertilizer rates, I've been
having some issues with somevipers out there actually taking
some of those prescriptionsbecause it's too many vertices.
So I actually went back to notdissolving those prescriptions
(18:10):
and just going back to the goodold-fashioned grids with all000
polygons out there forcontrollers like Vipers, and so
we still have to watch that.
But I'm finding more successgoing back to that old-fashioned
(18:34):
way of just using that gridpolygon, keeping it fully
interpolated, you know watchingthe number of rates from there
and where it needs to read ifit's the center of the polygon,
or you know wherever that needsto go and then exporting that
out.
And there's some othercontrollers that are like that
too.
Jodi (18:51):
I think the two things that I keep in mind when I think
about dissolving I typicallywill dissolve when I've rounded
to an increment, right, so I'vegot you know fewer rates and
like whether that's 10 to 20,whatever the point is is like I
don't want to take a fullyinterpolated map and then
(19:12):
dissolve it when I'm exporting.
Sarah (19:14):
And the other case is is that one thing that happens when
oh, jodi, can I just back upone minute, Because you said
something that's reallyimportant right there.
Never take a fully interpolatedmap and dissolve it, for the
people in the back.
Say that one more time, jodi,never dissolve a fully
interpolated map and dissolve itFor the people in the back.
Say that one more time.
Jodi (19:29):
Jodi, never dissolve a fully interpolated map Again,
like we just talked about, whatdissolving does is it takes all
those rates that are the sameand creates a polygon for them.
And so if you've got usingSarah's example if you've got
100,000 soybean seeds, up to200,000 soybean seeds in the
same map, you hypotheticallyhave 200,000 discrete rates.
(19:52):
That could be going on, and sowhat dissolving in that case
would do would be creating arate for a polygon of a rate,
100,000 through 200,000.
So you can imagine that thatwould cause some issues.
So if you have a fullyinterpolated map, do not
dissolve it.
That's really good information,right there you will find out
(20:14):
that there are issues, andthat's OK.
Well, it's not OK.
Sarah (20:17):
Don't do that, we'll just leave it there, especially if
there's rain in the forecast andthe floor is sitting right
there.
That is a bad day.
Exactly, exactly the otherthing, I think about, and I
think it's more.
Jodi (20:27):
you know, I can think of a specific planter planter
monitor that requires the same.
So, like when you're dissolvingoutput, it has to be separated
into separate shapefiles, right?
So like when you click dissolveoutput, the other checkbox
below it will also say createseparate shape files.
(20:49):
So if you are exporting to acontroller that cannot use
separate shape files fordifferent rates and again refer
back to the ADMS exportingmatrix to see what and where
Sarah's going to put it up inthe video, even though you can't
see it.
Sarah (21:08):
Sarah is flipping to that page.
I'm going to find us the pagenumber.
Jodi (21:11):
But that's another case, like I can think of a specific
planter monitor where you needto have all rates in a single
state file.
That would be a case where youcan't, even though you have hard
breaks or discrete values, fewnumber of rates where you could
dissolve, where you wouldn't beable to dissolve because it
wouldn't work in that specificmonitor.
So those are just the twothings that I keep in mind when
(21:34):
I think about not to dissolve anoutput or dissolve a
prescription.
Sarah (21:39):
That's really important information and I think it's OK
for us to mention that.
If you want to have successgetting prescriptions into Borgo
, the Topcon controllers, that'sone that you have to have all
of your prescriptions on thesame shape file.
And that's important becausethat's for Borgo carts and you
(22:00):
know they've got those carts arehuge, they usually have huge
tools on them.
They've got, you know, lots ofdifferent bins so they can
variable rate a lot of differentproducts, but each bin in the
cart with its own separateprescription.
All of that has to be on thesame shapefile.
So and it gets to be achallenge because a lot of times
(22:22):
these Borgo carts are gettingused out in fields that are huge
.
You know they're really popularin Montana, saskatchewan.
They came from the big prairiesof Canada, it's where they're
from.
So you know, a couple thousandacres in a field not a big deal
for these carts to take on.
Jodi (22:40):
I'm really glad you mentioned that, Sarah, because
that is not the controller I wasthinking of.
So I learned something today.
Oh, what was yours?
Because that is not thecontroller I was thinking of.
So I learned something today.
Oh, what was yours?
So the older generationprecision planting monitors, you
can't have different rates andlike they all have to be in the
same file.
So, like newer monitors,they're fine.
But and maybe it's justseparate products, but still the
(23:03):
same thing If you're exportingout, they have to be in the same
.
Sarah (23:08):
If you've got separate bins, you could be having seed
going down with one, you couldbe having fertilizer going down
with one, but all of that has tobe in the same shape file.
Yes, yep, and same.
Jodi (23:21):
Yeah, for precision planting monitors, if you've got
two hybrids it has to be in thesame shape file.
It cannot be separate.
But again, this is such a greatconversation because some of
these monitors, you know, evenyou know there's different
generations of precisionplanting monitors and they can
(23:41):
kind of vary in terms of whatthey can and cannot read and
there's different monitors fordifferent equipment and they all
kind of have these littleeccentricities.
So you know, maybe you don'tget it right on the first time
when you export and put it intoa cart or a monitor, and that's
okay, that's going to happen.
Like you can't know everythingabout every single monitor.
Like over time you'll build upthat experience and know.
(24:02):
But this is why it's importantto do like a yard test file so
that you can figure out Testprescriptions.
Sarah (24:12):
Yes, I could advocate the test prescription for everybody
to use.
Holy Hannah, I mean, that wouldjust If everybody would just go
out and try a test prescriptionin the spring of the year.
Jodi (24:23):
It would be great, yep, because you know it's so funny
because, again, it's easy tomake a prescription like just a
general prescription, right,it's as simple as saying taking
your fertilizer map, yourVaborite fertilizer map, and
saying export.
The hard thing is figuring out.
You know what are the detailsthat I've got to put in here to
(24:44):
make it so that it's readable bythe specific controller that
I'm putting in.
And, of course, as you get morethings going on more bins, more
products it gets a little bitmore complicated.
But again, details.
You can either call us at GKthat we work with all these
things Sometimes we don't alwaysknow all the answers but we can
help you connect to somebodythat does or you know, when you
(25:07):
work with these things longenough, you gain that experience
.
Sarah (25:10):
But I do want to back up, though, because we were talking
about dissolving and that wholeidea that you can't separate
out shape files, and I think wewere talking about, like Virgo
cards and things like that, andso it's still important to
remember that, if you're gonnaexport out the old-fashioned way
with the old grid, there aredefinitely places where that is
still extremely acceptable,wonderful and the absolute best
(25:35):
way to go.
So, even though we've got thesefancy ways of dissolving and
grouping together rates and andthose sorts of things, just
remember sometimes theold-fashioned way is the way to
go.
Yes, you don't always have todissolve, right, but you do need
to make sure that you'rekeeping it under 10 000 polygons
, generally speaking, and forthose of you with some of those
(25:55):
controllers that need like 1500polygons, like 1500 um, then you
will probably be dissolving androunding to increment.
Jodi (26:07):
Just so you can get better detail.
Absolutely right, Because whenwe export a prescription using
the grids, we reduce like ifwe're trying to get under 10,000
polygons what we do is weincrease the size of the polygon
, right, so decrease theresolution, take out a little
bit of detail, but we increasethat polygon size until we're
(26:27):
under that 1,500 polygon mark.
So you can imagine, if you'regoing from 20,000 down to 1,500,
you're going to have toincrease that resolution a lot
and lose a lot of detail inorder to meet that 1,500 limit.
And so, yeah, in that case,dissolving to an increment,
making those hard breaks andthen dissolving the output when
(26:51):
you export, it is probably areally good thing just to
preserve the integrity of theoriginal prescription.
Sarah (26:57):
Absolutely, absolutely.
That makes a lot of sense.
Another question that I feellike I always get in the spring
of the year is about enforcingmax and min rates.
Yes, I would love for you totalk about this, sarah.
Well, it's kind of a big dealright.
There's fertilizer applicatorsout there.
This is generally more of afertilizer spreader issue than
(27:19):
anything else, but it's one ofthose things.
You just got to be cognizant ofthe equipment's ability to
apply low rates.
For certain controllers, zerorates are really complicated
usually a liquid thing going onthere but for dry fertilizer
spreaders, applying low ratescan be really hard and it's
(27:40):
better to go to a zero rate orand implement a minimum rate.
So there's, if you're ever inthe merge zone results file or
and you're writing aprescription, there's a box in
there that you can check thatsays enforce max and min rates.
And it's the same thing whenyou're exporting out in the
shape grid there's an enforcemax and min rates and what it
(28:03):
does is when you set up thatfertilizer like let's say you've
got 4600 set up to be afertilizer in your fertilizer
database in the software thereis a place at the bottom where
it says max rate and min rateand you can go in it, edit these
things and save them and that'sin the setup fertilizer section
(28:26):
, right?
Jodi (28:28):
Yes, that is correct.
Sarah (28:29):
Nice, that's pretty good.
There's a lot of buttons in thesoftware.
Sometimes remembering whereeverything is is kind of a
challenge to me.
Jodi (28:37):
But yes, when I'm on the phone with people.
I open ADMS so that I tell themexactly the right button.
Sarah (28:43):
That's what I do too.
We want to help you as much aspossible.
Jodi (28:48):
We're trying to do our best so that we're on the same
page, okay.
Sarah (28:53):
I have had a couple of victory calls where I've been
like driving someplace and youknow a customer calls or
whatever, and they're like, hey,I'm trying to, I'm trying to do
this, whatever it is, and soI'm trying to remember in my
mind where all the buttons are,and I would.
I would just like to announcethat I've actually had a couple
(29:13):
of victories with that now where, like I, I remembered the
buttons and the guys like, hey,that totally worked, it was
great.
Anyway, I digress.
Jodi (29:29):
I dissolve, just kidding, anyway, sorry.
Okay, so we have the minimumand maximum rate set up and set
up fertilizers.
Sarah (29:39):
It's in the fertilizer.
So if you set like the minimumrate on that urea, that 4600
fertilizer, to like 50 or 60pounds, it's going to stop at
that number, so at 50 pounds.
If there's any rates in yourprescription between zero and 50
pounds, what it's going to dois if it's 25 pounds or above,
(30:03):
it's going to push that rate upto 50 pounds.
If it's below that 25 pounds,it's going to turn it into a
zero rate so that fertilizerspreader does not have to figure
out how to spread 20 poundsbecause that's such a low rate
that you're not going to get anaccurate application at that low
volume.
Now I actually have somefertilizer suppliers that I work
(30:26):
with that have their minimumrate set at 80 pounds.
So you know it's important tomake sure that we've got enough
volume going through thespreader to make sure we can
control those rates well.
Jodi (30:41):
Absolutely.
One thing too, like on theother side as well a maximum
rate, right, the spedders thatwe work with, they can't, all I
know.
Sometimes, when I put you knowguidelines together or like a
fertilizer program together,sometimes it's just like, hey, I
need 800 pounds or 850 or 900,950 pounds of the blend here,
(31:02):
but not all speders can handleputting down 950 pounds of
fertilizer.
So, a I need to either figureout how to change my blend to
meet my N rates, because that'swhat I'm typically blending for
if I've got a lot going on but A, backing up a little bit, I
need to figure out, a for thespreader that this fertilizer
(31:22):
rack is going to, what is theirmaximum rate?
They are not all the same,they're probably pretty similar.
But like just check, I know,like when I set up for just
thinking about fertilizer, for,like my own farm, right, I can
only put so much through thecart that the fan can handle in
(31:43):
terms of both seed andfertilizer.
So I need to be cognizant ofthat.
Same thing for spreaders.
Typically, if it's over 900pounds, that's a problem.
So keep that in mind.
Either account for that whenyou're putting together your
fertilizer programs or make surethat you've got that maximum
rate of what that spreaderyou're writing to can handle in
(32:03):
your setup fertilizer side.
Sarah (32:05):
And if you're applying like more than 900 pounds,
you're probably spreading lime.
Jodi (32:13):
Or blending in one bin a lot of stuff.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
This is a really good place tostop the first half of our
conversation about common springquestions.
We've gotten here at GKTechnology.
I've learned so much just inthis 30 minutes and I think you
guys will too, so please join usnext time for the second half
(32:34):
of our conversation here on AgGeek Speak.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.