At 15 cents to 25 cents per acre cost, can a farmer save $5 to $10 per acre in foliar sprays? Absolutely, says Russell Hedrick, pointing to proof in his own fields and the use of an artificial intelligence tool.
“Underapplying or overapplying nutrients are equally bad,” Hedrick explains. “I want to give a plant the exact amount of product needed for balance with the cheapest digital technology possible.”
That tech, according to Hedrick, is Foliar Scripts. “The fertilizer guesswork is over in my fields,” he says. “We get it right down to the ounce.”
Goodbye Guesswork
Hedrick keeps a foot in both high yield and profit-per-acre management on his corn and soybean operation in Catawba County—classic foothill country in western North Carolina, between the Appalachian Mountains and the Piedmont Plateau.
In 2019, frustrated by the loss of dollars through inexact foliar applications, Hedrick began compiling a spreadsheet detailing fertilizer use to the drop. “Guys can pull a tissue sample and get back fertilizer recommendations of 10 ounces to a gallon. What’s right? Or they’re stuck with a product that says to use 1 quart up to 6 quarts. Which one? That guesswork is where everyone suffers major losses.”
“Farmers already get a recommendation and a way to manage fertility with soil tests,” he adds. “It’s time to bring tissue sampling up to the same standards.”
Hedrick took his brainchild to AgWise, and the digital ag data platform ran with the ball, building Foliar Scripts. The recommendation tool allows growers to map what nutrients are being supplied by the soil and enables correction of in-season deficiencies. From year to year, Foliar Scripts also maps potential problem spots and stores data in a single location.
“Let’s say you have a foliar script and a 24% potassium acetate. Log in and it’ll show you are deficient by x amount and that you need to spray exactly 18 ounces,” Hedrick details. “You spend 25 cents per acre to run the program and save anywhere from 80 cents per acre on the low side to $16 per acre on the high side.”
“The program is not brand specific and has dropdowns to make sure guys anywhere in the country can pick the exact products that are local to them,” he adds.
Sarah Martello, CEO of AgWise, echoes Hedrick. “It’s so easy and as simple as doing nutrient tests. It’s a huge opportunity for farmers to use only what is needed and save money at the same time.”
“Here’s reality,” Hedrick continues. “One quart of a particular foliar product may cost the producer $2 per acre, but 2 gallons may cost you $20 per acre. There’s $18 per acre the farmer has no management decisions on how to make the educated, scientific application. That’s where AgWise comes in and works with foliar scripts where now a grower can use a soil sample, correct their soil, and then if they have deficiencies in the plant, or an imbalance, they can come back in-season and pull a tissue sample. It costs 13 cents for a 40-acre sample and 26 cents for a 20-acre sample.”
Calculus Change
AgWise partners with numerous commercial labs that send the company tissue information from a given grower. AgWise then generates a precise recommendation report to be used by the grower. “Do your tissue sample and put this as an add-on to your test. It costs the lab absolutely nothing. And if your lab doesn’t offer this yet, you can still go online and sign up,” Hedrick says. “Just enter the numbers and the script generates off that—so user-friendly.”
Hedrick’s yields are proof positive of Foliar Scripts, Martello notes. “Precise recommendations save farmers a lot of money. This is great now, but it’s going to become amazing when we continue adding data into the system.”
Precise nutrient applications have paid huge dividends on Hedrick’s operation. “I see so many examples of guys spending dollars to save pennies—this is the opposite” he says. “At 25 cents per acre, there’s no way I can afford not to use this.”
In 2012, Hedrick began farming solo and was blessed with strong commodity prices. Two years later, prices dropped, but inputs were relatively low. In 2024, the calculus has changed, and Hedrick leans on the fractional cost of digital data.
“We’re at a point where prices are down and inputs are generally up. Since 2021, we’ve seen fertilizer jump 300 percent and chemistry 200 percent. Now is the time to pay 25 or 50 cents per acre to track inputs and reduce them by 25 percent, just for example. However, that 25% savings now is 200% greater than savings 10 years ago,” he concludes. “That’s how we can still make money in farming right now.”
