Selecting Seeds by the Acre

Digital seed selection tools help farmers make the right choices for their fields and avoid the wrong ones.

- By Alex Gray

Selecting the right seed doesn’t have to be rigorous trial and error. Digital seed selection tools unite field data, artificial intelligence (AI), and human expertise, so you can make the right choices for your field.

GHX MaxScript

GHX by Golden Harvest is one of the tools available to farmers when making corn and soybean seed selections. MaxScript, available in GHX, pairs the farmer with its digital tools and a Golden Harvest adviser to prescribe the right hybrids and rate at the field level.

MaxScript looks at three elements when choosing seeds for each field: soil productivity, 20-year weather history, and the results from over 20,000 trials conducted by Syngenta.

“One of the things we focus on is not just getting the right hybrid but making sure we don’t have the wrong hybrids,” said Justin Welch, head of agronomy for Golden Harvest.

“Many times, there are two or three products that may be suitable for a field, but there also may be one a farmer is purchasing that we would not recommend in that field.”

The process starts with a farmer’s field boundaries. The farmer can connect GHX directly to the John Deere Operations Center, or export their data from other farm management information system (FMIS) platforms. Once GHX has the field boundary data, the Golden Harvest adviser can begin making recommendations.

The adviser breaks up the fields in GHX Fields to see which variability and soil types are present and then uses the resulting data to fine-tune compatible hybrids and rates. Once seeds are planted, the adviser regularly checks in with the farmer to make sure the preseason planning is followed through. This also allows adjustments as the weather shifts out of the 20-year pattern’s expected range.