VIDEO: Planter Metrics for Crop Scouting

Content Author: Levi Powell, Ryan W Bergman

As planting wraps up and crops begin to emerge across the state, data collected during planting can help you diagnose many issues in your field and determine if they were related to machine performance or agronomic factors. In this video, Program Specialist Levi Powell shows how to use spatially mapped metrics in your planter display system to glean valuable information from the data after planting and identify issues in the field—as well as what might have caused them. For more information on gathering and adjusting planter metrics in the field, check out our previous video.

Many planter technology brands have similar iPad apps or monitor setups to the John Deere system shown here. Metrics and information on singulation, seed spacing, population, ride quality, etc. can help you diagnose emergence issues or varying crop vigor spotted in the field while scouting. Using these layers of data from the planter can help pinpoint if the issue is related to machine performance or other agronomic factors.

This technology may not solve every potential problem during planting, but it can help identify them and allow you to make insightful management decisions. While the seeds are already in the ground for 2021, diagnosing machine performance issues now provides the opportunity to correct them before the 2022 season.

Links to this article are strongly encouraged, and this article may be republished without further permission if published as written and if credit is given to the author, Integrated Crop Management News, and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. If this article is to be used in any other manner, permission from the author is required. This article was originally published on May 17, 2021. The information contained within may not be the most current and accurate depending on when it is accessed.