From the Producer’s Perspective:
Cotton yield maps created in two fields following the 2010 growing season
(Figure 7) indicated a wide range of yield variability. We decided that
variable rate seeding would be the best way to address this variability.
We used the Veris 3100 to create soil EC maps (Figure 8) and used the
soil EC values to determine the seeding rate. The criteria for seeding
rates were lower seeding rates for lighter soil textures with higher seeding
rates on heavier soil types (Figure 8). The end result was an average
seeding rate of 40,000 seed per acre across the 300 acres. Our
regular seeding rate was 48,000 seed per acre. To gain confidence in
our variable rate seeding plan we conducted a replicated strip test in
one of the fields during 2011 (Figure 11). We alternated variable rate
seeding strips with uniform rate strips to compare the yield results.