By
Phillip Clancy, Next Instruments, Australia
Farmers have commented that if they bought everything that was going to save them money, then they would go broke.
No wonder farmers are sceptical about new claims from suppliers that their new product, invention or service is the next big thing in agriculture. This article sets out a number of research findings going back for more than 50 years about the importance of getting the yield and protein balance correct in cereal crops.
What is the yield and protein balance?
The growth and development of plants undergoes a number of stages; emergence, tillering, flowering and filling. Water is the major driver for successful plant and seed development. There are many other nutrients that influence the plants development, but nitrogen is definitely the next most important driver for plant development.
The primary objective of all plants is to reproduce by producing seeds to carry forward the genetic information in the next crop. Plants are programmed through millions of years of evolution to modify the plants growth cycle to ensure that some seeds are produced to procreate the next crop.
As such, if there are insufficient nutrients available at the various stages of development, then the plant will reduce the number of stems, heads or even seeds to ensure that what nutrients are available are used to ensure that seeds are eventually produced and released. These changes to the plant’s development effect the yield potential for the plant. Nitrogen is the key nutrient that dictates how the plant will make these changes during the stages of the plant development.
Proteins are composed of approximately 17.5 percent of nitrogen by weight. As such, measuring the protein in the seeds at harvest provides a direct measurement of the availability and uptake of nitrogen in the plants. By measuring protein in real-time on a combine harvester and combining the data with the yield and GPS coordinates, provides a means of generating field maps including: protein, yield, nitrogen removal, gross margin and protein/yield correlation.
Read more HERE.
Visit the Next Instruments website, HERE.
Farmers have commented that if they bought everything that was going to save them money, then they would go broke.
No wonder farmers are sceptical about new claims from suppliers that their new product, invention or service is the next big thing in agriculture. This article sets out a number of research findings going back for more than 50 years about the importance of getting the yield and protein balance correct in cereal crops.
What is the yield and protein balance?
The growth and development of plants undergoes a number of stages; emergence, tillering, flowering and filling. Water is the major driver for successful plant and seed development. There are many other nutrients that influence the plants development, but nitrogen is definitely the next most important driver for plant development.
The primary objective of all plants is to reproduce by producing seeds to carry forward the genetic information in the next crop. Plants are programmed through millions of years of evolution to modify the plants growth cycle to ensure that some seeds are produced to procreate the next crop.
As such, if there are insufficient nutrients available at the various stages of development, then the plant will reduce the number of stems, heads or even seeds to ensure that what nutrients are available are used to ensure that seeds are eventually produced and released. These changes to the plant’s development effect the yield potential for the plant. Nitrogen is the key nutrient that dictates how the plant will make these changes during the stages of the plant development.
Proteins are composed of approximately 17.5 percent of nitrogen by weight. As such, measuring the protein in the seeds at harvest provides a direct measurement of the availability and uptake of nitrogen in the plants. By measuring protein in real-time on a combine harvester and combining the data with the yield and GPS coordinates, provides a means of generating field maps including: protein, yield, nitrogen removal, gross margin and protein/yield correlation.
Read more HERE.
Visit the Next Instruments website, HERE.
The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.
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