McArthur Ag Ventures (MAV) is a 112-year-old, fourth-generation operation that fans out across 18,000 acres of western Canadian prairie land. The soil is productive yet diverse in terms of typography, and technology is one tool that helps Brennan McArthur level the playing field.
“A new machine is a million bucks now,” he says. “Farmland is soon to be a million bucks. It’s not like 10 years ago where you just needed to grow a crop, and you knew you could pay the bills. There’s still money to be made, and it’s still a rewarding line of work, but you really need to be on the ball.”
MAV has an extensive smart farming program that incorporates annual GPS-based soil sampling to inform variable-rate nutrient applications, drone-based scouting and machine and in-field agronomy data management.
Everything begins, though, with managing the soil. Five years ago, the farm switched from an in-house soil sampling and variable-rate program to using Croptimistic Technologies’ Soil, Water and Topography (SWAT) maps.
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Every spring, the Croptimistic team runs its sensors across McArthur’s acreage. The soil data is then crunched and extrapolated onto 3D, multicolored maps to notate elevation, water-holding capacity and other soil metrics. The maps are loaded onto the operation’s fertilizer spreading tractors that vary the rate at which nutrients are applied. The high-yielding zones get a bit more to push yields, while areas that aren’t as productive get a bit less.
“I do believe since we’ve adopted a lot of these practices, such as SWAT, minimum tillage and direct seeding, our soil health has improved and continues to improve all the time and allowed us to grow more bushels,” he adds.
Data-based Decisions
When McArthur hears the term “smart farming” he thinks about making decisions based on the data that flows with every pass across a field.
“The more we grow and the more progressive we get with our consultants and our teams, the more I realize there are lots of smart farms out there today, but at the same time, there’s still not enough,” he explains. “You really need to know your cost of production and your machinery metrics. And you need to utilize technology to grow the best crops you can with what you have. To me, that’s smart farming.”
3 key takeaways from our conversation with McArthur:
- Importance of Data-Driven Farming. Using technology and data in all aspects of farming practices is important to maintain profitability in today’s volatile ag markets. McArthur Ag Ventures relies on GPS soil sampling and SWAT maps to help them find variability in soil conditions, which in turn allows the agronomists on staff optimize their inputs and incrementally improve yields without added input costs.
- Sustainability as a Standard Practice. Brennan McArthur feels sustainability should be standard practice among progressive farmers, rather than just a marketing program focus. Modern farming operations are implementing sustainable practices without needing to promote them heavily.
- Adoption of Advanced Technologies. Farmers must adopt advanced practices like variable rate applications and analyzing machinery metrics with AI to remain competitive. As farming becomes more business-oriented, understanding costs and how to find new efficiencies is crucial for success.
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