Increase Grower Profitability with More Accurate Yield Data Analysis

Hosted by:

Speakers

• Becky HornDirector of Marketing, XSInc

• Angela WalkerProduct Manager, XSInc

Introduction to XSInc• Founded in 1998

• Profitable and privately held

• 75 employees

• Located in Raleigh, NC

• Core technology and service offerings

– Data collection, cleaning and processing, including sales data and production data

– Market research platforms

– Sales performance management tools

– Marketing program administration/fulfillment tools

– Production management systems

– Production analysis

• Clients include manufacturers, distributors,retailers, and consultants

Everybody Knows There’s Variability in a Field

Challenges• New products and techniques become available, but

will they perform on your growers’ fields?

Yield Analysis Map of a Side-By-Side Fertilizer Trial

Challenges

• Many variables affect yield

• Which ones have the most impact on your growers’ individual fields, and where?

ElevationTreatment Soil Types

Field Data from a Strip Trail

Challenges

• Where on the field will it be profitable for your grower to invest?

Yield Map for a Fungicide Strip Trial

2013-14 Market Survey - Questions

I wish I could economically address the following challenges (pick as many as are applicable). How to:

Analyze multiple factors affecting yield all at once instead of one at a time

Determine which factors best explain yield variability on a field

Perform on-farm, in-field trials as accurately as small-block replicated trials

Get a map showing unexplained low yielding areas to target my inspecting

Reduce costs for my growers by targeting treatment only where it’s needed

2013-14 Market Survey - Results

72%

69%

83%

100%

97%

Targeting Treatment

Map for Inspecting

On-Farm Trials

Which Factors Best Explain

Analyze Multiple Factors

Percent of Population

I wish I could economically address the following challenges:

Source: 2013-2014 XSInc interviews; sample size=60

Percentage of Growers Collecting Data

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

0-20% 21-50% 51-80% 81-100%

Percentage of Growers Collecting Data

Percentage of Responders

Percentage of Growers Using Data

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

0-20% 21-50% 51-80% 81-100%

Percentage of Growers Using Data

Percentage of Responders

2013-14 Market Survey - Results

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

0-20% 21-50% 51-80% 81-100%

Percentage of Growers Using Data

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

0-20% 21-50% 51-80% 81-100%

Percentage of Growers Collecting Data

Growers Collecting Data

Growers Using Data

Source: 2013-2014 XSInc interviews; sample size=60

Data-to-Knowledge Disconnect

“We have all sorts of information being collected, from direction of travel to speed, weather data and planter settings.”

“What are we doing about mining this big data to extract knowledge out of it? That’s why precision is so frustrating — because we’ve not made a lot of progress on that front.”

~ John Reifsteck ~

*Excerpt from Reifsteck: What Precision Ag Needs, PrecisionAg.com – Paul Schrimpf, May 2, 2013

*

Yield Map That side of the field always performs better.

Why?

Did that fertilizer really work, or did something else affect my yield?

Is the investment really worth it?

What does this yield map tell me?

AgVeritasTM was designed to answerthese questions.

What is AgVeritasTM?

• Web-based yield analysis tool

• Uses advanced spatial statistics to analyze yield variability

• Provides in-depth results on one field at a time

• Analyzes multiple factors to determine which ones explain more or less of the variability

• Identifies where treatment can be profitably applied

How does AgVeritas work?

AgVeritas analyzes yield variability

• Unlimited number of variables can be included

Field Conditions Management Practices

• Soil Types• Elevation• Slope• Electrical Conductivity• Nutrient Levels

…..Plus many, many more……

• Seed Choice• Seed Rate• Crop Protection Use/Rate• Fertility Use/Rate• Tilling practice

…..Plus many, many more……

Spatial Effects

• AgVeritas also identifies unexplained high or low yielding areas, AFTER accounting for all known data

• Examples: deer damage, equipment malfunction, former turkey farm, etc. Spatial Effects Map

High yieldLow yield

Fungicide Trial

Soil Types

Elevation

Result of “Averages” AnalysisDifference: 8.0 bu/ac

AgVeritas Fungicide Trial Analysis

Provide additional value to your growers by:

– Identifying areas with “spatial effects”

– Examining multiple factors simultaneously

– Determining which factors have the most impact

– Ascertaining how much yield variability can be attributed to a management practice

– Identifying where it will be most profitable to apply a treatment in the future

AgVeritas - Value Summary

Free Data Analysis

• Give AgVeritas a test drive

• Send us yield data and any additional data files you have for a single field

• Current or past years

Thank you for your time!

Becky Horn – Director of Marketing, bhorn@xsinc.com

919-379-3539www.xsinc.com

An Example

Soil Types

Elevation Fungicide

Averages AnalysisFungicide: 188.7 bu/acUntreated: 180.7 bu/acDifference: 8.0 bu/ac

An Example

Low yielding areasHigh yielding areas

An Example

Most Power

Least Power

Spatial Effects

ElevationTreatmentSoil Types

Soil Types

Elevation Treatment Spatial Effects

An Example

Considering the affect of spatial effects on yield.

Analyzed yield Compare toAverages AnalysisFungicide: 188.7 bu/acUntreated: 180.7 bu/acDifference: 8.0 bu/ac

An Example

Yield increase greater than 4 bu/ac

Drawing conclusions

Any number of variables…

A New Approach

Traditional Approach

Examines one or two factors at a time.

Assumes other conditions are similar.

Compares averages (ex: treated vs. untreated).

Reveals lots of information but few confident conclusions.

AgVeritas™ Approach

Examines ALL factors at once and identifies the relative importance.

Accounts for spatial effects (ex: unexplained factors).

Compares areas of the field with similar characteristics.

Reveals actionable yes/no results based on profitability.

Factors

Environment

Analysis

Results

An Examplepreparing your analysis

Export form field

management software

Yield File

As Applied File

Upload to AgVeritas

• Export data from field management software

• Upload to AgVeritas

• Review data once it’s imported

Review data when import

complete