P&H’s Crop Planning Tips for Plant 2024

January 23, 2024 | Eastern Canada, Uncategorized, Western Canada

Aside from an extreme weather event, the winter months are the last chance to make calculated crop plan adjustments.

Crop planning with P&H can help you finalize crop rotation plans, select seed varieties with agronomic traits that fit your farm, and create a fertility plan that matches the selected varieties and the fertility of your fields. It’s more important than ever to hyper-analyze costs of each input, and carefully select the right inputs for your farm with the current environmental conditions.

Before your seed hits the ground, here are a few things  to plan for during the remaining winter months:

Make a yearly input purchase plan

To combat climbing operating costs and better forecast your costs/acre, make a yearly input purchase plan.

It doesn’t mean you need to buy everything all at once, but making an annual purchase plan using your historical purchases’ timing and prices can help you predict what your ROI will look like before your seed is in the ground. Knowing your input costs early can help you get a better idea of your overall operating costs and accurately set target yields.

From the genetics in the seed to the diseases that try to rob yield, and onto moving your grain around the world after harvest, our experts are here to bring you the knowledge, experience, and advice to help you get a return on investment from your acres.

Consider using seed treatments and P&H can provide a tailor-made solution for every point in your crop’s development. From seed to crop protection to nutrient management, we’ll help you get more out of your crops every year.

Soil sample in the spring

Conducting a spring soil sample can help you get an accurate nutrient and soil profile that better represents the time of seeding.

Fall sampling provides very valuable information, but the fact is that snow and moisture levels, alongside fluctuating temperatures can dramatically change the soil profile over the winter months. Having both fall and spring samples can provide a valuable insight into what goes on during the winter based on the type of weather that occurs.

Knowing the nutrient and moisture levels at the time of seeding can also help you better prepare for what herbicides, pesticides and crop management tools to use. Having accurate soil info at seeding can help manage weed resistance and inform your farm’s fertility plan, allowing you to make an adjustment if needed.

Our agronomists are regional experts with extensive and valuable experience managing crops in your area. We take pride in sharing our knowledge and experience to help you make the best decision to manage your nutrients and fertility plan.

Prepare your seeding equipment early

Seeding is without a doubt the most important time of year for crop production. Why spend the money on seed and inputs if your equipment isn’t ready to do the best job possible?

As weather slowly warms up the best time to go over each component of your seeding equipment is early, don’t leave your inspections until the day before seeding.

Specific areas to look over on your seeder and planter inspections are the tank seals, seed hoses, down-pressure systems, and meter housings, which should be clean and free-moving. Seized meter housings and clogged hoses can be frustrating and costly. Inspect the condition of each row unit’s soil openers, closing wheels, springs, bearings and moving parts. These components all need to be functioning properly in order to give you the seed delivery and proper seed-to-soil contact necessary for germination.

Make a grain marketing plan

As you start predicting costs per acre and finalizing rotation decisions, talk with your grain buying professional to make a plan on when to sell what, and what prices to target for those sales.

If you have old crop to sell, now is a great time to consider contracting options on 2023 crop to free up cash before purchasing inputs for this year.

We offer a variety of grain contracting options for both buyers and sellers. Our options are designed to suit delivery and risk tolerance requirements so that you can focus on your core business and feel confident in the value our traders will derive for you.

The sooner you call, the more tools they have available to help ease your cashflow and logistics issues and take advantage of higher prices before they drop.

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