It’s gettin’ busy in the Midwest.

When it comes to harvest, no one knows your land and crops better than you. But don’t forget to dig into your data. On average, U.S. corn and soybean farms generate more than 2,500 data records during a typical 10-month growing season. The data captured this season, and years past, can take you well beyond last year’s yield and this year’s growing conditions and provide invaluable insights to prioritize decisions before, during and after harvest.

Digital tools like Granular Insights™ make it easy for farmers to tap into the often siloed data on their farm. Farmers can gain greater visibility into key operational decisions and, most importantly, see how to drive profitability on their farm at harvest and all year-round.

Use data before harvest to tell you when and where to begin and to build your harvest strategy.

Many factors determine where and when to begin harvest — harvest moisture being one of the biggest. Many grain buyers assume a “standard” moisture for beans of 13 percent, and will typically apply a shrink and drying discount to grain delivered above that threshold. But that doesn’t necessarily mean 13 percent is right (or most profitable) for you. Certainly trends and regional data can help inform your ideal harvest moisture, but the best data comes from your fields.

With your data in Granular Insights, you can target your most profitable harvest moisture:

●      Start with the imagery from Directed Scouting to see what fields are drying down the fastest and where to prioritize your moisture tests (click here for tips on getting an accurate moisture reading).

●      Use the map layers to compare historical harvest moisture, by field and aggregated across your operation, and see the impact on yield.

Data-based insights can also tell you where to harvest first. Using satellite imagery late in the growing season can help you locate which fields are declining most rapidly and should be prioritized for harvest. With Directed Scouting in Granular Insights, a farmer receives weekly “Scouting Priority” emails that can flag issues like late-season weed pressure, identifying what fields to harvest first.

If you know what’s happening during harvest, you can react and change plans appropriately. Collaboration and communication is particularly important during harvest, when team members are scattered and busy. With Granular Insights, team members can snap and send geolocated photos and important notes on field conditions, threat observations, and hazards for next year.

Use post-harvest data to drive profitability.

After the harvest dust settles, use your data to build better plans for next year and make more profitable decisions. You can evaluate your investments — whether it’s the right product for the right acre, or where investments in fertilizer and nitrogen paid off. With Granular Insights, you can simply and easily analyze the ROI of seed decisions, see financial and agronomic map layers side-by-side, and understand the impact of harvest moisture and planting date on your yield. Spend less time flipping through yield maps and spreadsheets and see how to use this free tool to get to the root of what’s profitable and what’s not.

But… make sure to get it right from the get-go

All this data is invaluable — if it’s accurate — so get your data in right. The up-front investment in pre-harvest calibration ensures the accuracy and value of the data you collect for use in future insights and analysis. Pre-harvest calibration also allows for site-specific management of areas in the field, and minimizes time spent on future data post-processing. Calibration also ensures the viability of that data later for other purposes like prescriptions and crop insurance.

Check out Granular’s quick and easy tips to capture and transfer harvest data successfully. Create a free Granular Insights account here.