Yellow Gold Farms Ltd.

Development of a Variable Rate Corn Farming Web Tool (ReservoiRx)

 

CHALLENGE

A field’s corn crop was traditionally treated with one amount of planted seed, and a single rate of applied fertilizer (of each type). However, this results in wasted costs, fertilizers, and runoff. Variable rate farming involves applying custom amounts of seed, fertilizer, and other field inputs to each area of the field, based on need. An additional problem is that establishing the production rates of each area of a field, and preparing variable-rate maps for each field is a very time consuming task.

SOLUTION

Ontario grain farmer Rick Willemse of Yellow Gold Farms, has developed ReservoiRx, a variable rate tool to help corn farmers in Ontario. It uses field-specific data in order to create custom variable rate prescriptions. The result is cost savings of as much as 20 per cent on fertilizers, while achieving the farmer’s yield goals, and time savings. The Research & Innovation team will develop ReservoiRx from a digital spreadsheet, into a scaled web tool that can be used by consultants and grain farmers across Ontario, Canada, and the world. Yellow Gold’s ReservoiRx will make variable rate prescription-making efficient, and bring a significant agronomic and business control tool to provide farmers with greater control over their input costs, in order to maximize profitability.