Wheat School: Letting zone management and soil data set the seeding rate

By Amber Bell

Variable-rate seeding may not be new, but putting it into practice at scale still takes planning, data, and a willingness to adapt.

For Laird Lampertz and the team at Pitura Seeds near Domain, Man., that process started with a simple question: how do we get the most out of every seed?

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At the core of the decision was profitability, Lampertz said in this episode of RealAgriculture’s Wheat School.

“All decisions… for our farm, for our customers, it’s always based on profitability per acre,” he said.

That focus led the team to experiment with plant stand targets, adjusting rates by productivity zones to optimize tilling and reduce seed cost on high-performing land, while pushing maturity and plant count in lower-productivity zones.

Using 15 years of yield maps, topography, and soil conductivity data, Pitura Seeds developed a multi-zone approach for their acres. The results were surprising: in drier conditions, their most productive zones were pulling water from 50 centimetres deep nearly three weeks earlier than poorer zones, and still yielded well with lower plant stands, said Lampertz.

That kind of below-ground insight came from tools like soil probes and zone-based monitoring, which also tie into protein analyzers and variable-rate prescriptions. The technology exists, Lampertz said, and the next step is to use it.

“You’ve got to start somewhere… try it yourself,” he said. “The information is there. It’s just how do you capture it? How do you use it?”

For farms looking to start, he said even one field can yield valuable lessons and potential returns.