Your harvest data can be a treasure trove of information. However, without the proper approach, all that data can be overwhelming and a jumbled mess. Whether you have corn yield data or soybean yield data, understanding your yield maps from previous years can help you better manage your fields, invest in the right practices and inputs and make the correct adjustments to optimize this year’s yields.
Here are six practices you can use to better analyze your crop yield data and pinpoint areas needing intervention:
1. Collect, clean and layer crop yield data
You want to have a clear understanding of what’s influencing your crop yield data. Sorting through your data with the help of crop yield mapping software and cleaning up errors and anomalies can provide a clearer view of what’s going on.
Additionally, when you combine your yield data with soil maps, elevation and seeding data, you can better identify site-specific variables that can explain your crop yield data and give you better insights. Use a Geographic Information System (GIS) software package to visualize the yield in each location.
2. Normalize and analyze crop yield data history
Standardizing your data can help you compare zones or fields over multiple years. This means your crop yield data must be accurate, calibrated and consistent. Start by ensuring your yield monitor is properly calibrated each season. Even errors as small as 5% can distort long-term trends.
Ensure that file formats are standardized and anomalies caused by changes in grain flow, moisture or GPS signal are addressed. Once normalized, your historical yield maps can reveal consistent problem areas or areas of improvement, helping you fine-tune management strategies with confidence.1
3. Scout, investigate and set yield goals
Use those yield maps to inspect and scout problem areas. Also, plan for site-specific soil testing to determine what’s impacting or limiting your yields. Determine whether it was too wet, too dry, a nutrient or pest problem so you can better prepare for next year’s harvest.
Once you know the cause, you can set more realistic yield goals tailored to each management zone.
4. Correlate crop yield data analysis with practices
Link your yield outcomes and scouting with what you did in the field. Look at planting population, fertility rates, fungicide timing, seed traits or any other management practices you used.
For example, if you trialed a new product or changed management practices in one zone, compare those results with your standard program. BASF’s Real Results Yield Challenge offers a structured way to run side-by-side comparisons, giving you data-backed confidence when evaluating BASF fungicides against your current approach.
You can also view interactive crop yield mapping tools for crops such as canola, cotton and soybeans to see how their performance compares across regions.
These tools make it easier to validate decisions and refine inputs for higher returns. This can also be beneficial when evaluating new hybrids, and fertility levels, or when reviewing planting tactics. Look over your yield maps and compare them to any trials you might have performed on your farm. This can help you refine your inputs, select new seed varieties or keep doing what you’re doing right. If something is working well for you, expanding that management style to more areas can be very effective and profitable.2
5. Implement site-specific management based on crop yield data
Use variable-rate technology and zone management to apply inputs where they matter most. Tailoring your practices by zone improves input efficiency and helps close yield gaps across your acres.
6. Leverage decision support tools
Turn your crop yield data into actionable strategies using platforms like Xarvio. These tools can help interpret complex datasets, forecast disease risk, recommend input timing and streamline decision-making across your operation.
Paired with BASF agronomic expertise and real-world trials, these insights help you make confident, profitable decisions that are backed by both data and results.
Experts are available to help you make your decisions. Reach out to your seed retailer, a nearby extension office agent or a seed company professional like your regional BASF representative.
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Endnotes
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln. “Yield Monitoring and Mapping.” CropWatch, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, n.d., cropwatch.unl.edu/yield-monitoring-and-mapping/.
- Howard, Jennifer. “Interpreting the Growing Field of On-Farm Data.” Crop and Soil Sciences, North Carolina State University, 21 Oct. 2019, cals.ncsu.edu/crop-and-soil-sciences/news/interpreting-the-growing-field-of-on-farm-data/.
