Dysart, Iowa, strip-tiller Pete Youngblut cut his teeth in the precision ag industry as a software support specialist for Ag Leader. Now, as president and owner of independent dealer Youngblut Ag in central Iowa, he helps other strip-tillers solve challenges with precision technology.

“We want to pick the right pieces of the puzzle and put those all together to come up with the best solution,” Youngblut says.

Youngblut says the conversation about precision technology usually starts and ends with ROI.

“When it comes to precision, I can sell you whatever guidance system and say, ‘Here, put this on. Yep, it’ll auto steer, that’s great.’ But are you going to get the most ROI out of that? Or do we need to think about what are you doing in the planter? What about the combine? What about the sprayer? And the strip-till bar? I want to look at that whole system."

WATCH: Pete Youngblut and Andy Thompson of Yetter discuss why precision ag isn't one-size-fits-all for strip-tillers.

“If we’re not getting a return on it, is that what we really want?” he says. “Some stuff is nice. I’ve got a truck. I made sure I had leather seats because I have a 7-year-old that makes a hell of a mess. I got my return out of those leather seats. They’re easy to hose down, right? But did I need the sunroof that came with it? That’s cool. Wife likes it, I guess. But I don’t see any return on that thing. That’s what we want to look at. I’m going to get a lot of return out of a good metering system. I’m going to get a lot of return out of making sure I’m on the strip instead of off to the side. I might not get a return out of having sensors that tell me whether it’s blocked or not, but I very well could, depending on what product I have. But where do I want to start and where do I want to stop?”

Fertilizer Technology

Youngblut encourages his customers to always have a detailed game plan in place before deciding on major input purchases.

“You don’t have to go whole hog and just, ‘Hey, I’m going to walk into, let’s say, the local John Deere dealer. We’re going to buy a Kuhn Krause Gladiator and we’re going to put all this stuff in and we’re just going for it.’ If you’re unsure, that’s where you need to find a good partner and work with them,” Youngblut says. “Figure out your way into this and figure out what the best approach is.”

Youngblut often talks with strip-tillers about the differences between traditional and non–traditional fertilizer methods in strip-till systems, and how both have their pros and cons.

“What's the first thing you think of when you think of just traditional strip-till? Probably anhydrous and dry, right?” Youngblut says. “That's the same thing I hear every time. ‘Well, we're going to go put gas down, we want to put dry with it, put it all in a band, and that's what we're going to run with.’"

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Youngblut says there are other unconventional methods that can also work with strip-till. For example, he says an all-liquid approach can be convenient because most strip-tillers already own sprayers.

“If you spray your own product we could put liquid in storage,” he says. “We could buy it early and get a better price. We can apply it to the strip-till bar, we can do phosphorous, potassium, sulfur, nitrogen and micronutrients. We can do these different packages. There are other options out there. As a precision guy, I want to know that, because what we deal with is not just a rate control on an auto steer system. We've got to look at the whole thing in order to actually meter it and do a good job applying that. The next step into this is going to be with toolbars and row units.”

Youngblut says strip-till toolbars and row units, although not always viewed as being under the precision umbrella, are still integral parts of the precision equation.

“If I'm applying fertilizer, where am I going to carry the fertilizer?” Youngblut says. “Basically the difference that we're looking at is one is three-point mounted and we're pulling a cart behind that three-point bar, as compared to something where it's mounted, that tank is on the toolbar, and it's all a self-contained unit. What's one thing that might make life easier or harder if something were to break down? Hitch pin. ‘Well, what if my tractor gives up on me and I have to switch it?’ Pull the pin, pull hydraulic hoses, undo an electrical connector, and get it out of the way, hook up the next tractor, plug it in and go.”

Youngblut also highlights the difference between canned solutions and custom solutions.

“Canned is very easy,” he says. “I look at this a lot when we're dealing with planters as well. With a canned solution, I can walk into an implement dealership, no matter what color it is, and I buy that planter, or I buy that strip-till toolbar, and it's set up. All I have to do is figure out what controller I want on it, and we go to the field, and we run it. But then later you might think, "OK, I've spent a few hundred thousand dollars and I don't like it because it was supposed to work, but now what are my other options?’ You're a little bit more limited on what you got.”

With custom approaches, Youngblut emphasizes the amount of choice a consumer has with the products. Picking the bar, the way it folds, carrying capacity and row unit are all benefits of going the custom solution route.

“With the custom approach, we're able to pick what's going to be there and how that's going to work,” Youngblut says. “But at the same time, if you're trying to do something a little bit different, or use a different product, then the tech might show up and say, ‘Well, I don't know. I've never seen that before.’ We want to be able to find the right product that's going to fit with the bar, fit with the row unit, and put it all in.”

Number Crunching

Data management is another key piece to the precision puzzle and maximizing ROI, Youngblut says. He breaks down soil sample data before making variable rate fertilizer recommendations.

“I use variable rates because that's going to put more money in my pocket at the end of the day,” Youngblut says. “We can apply different products at different rates at the same time. We can do blends. But having the right rate controller that's easy to use, and works accurately, that's going to take care of you on that. Now you can go out and instead of dry spreading, just throwing it out there, we can get way more accurate than that.”

Youngblut says implement guidance can be another very helpful tool for strip-tillers, although it may not always be required.

“There's passive implement guidance and there's active implement guidance,” Youngblut says. “Active is moving things around, whereas passive is more having a receiver back there, knowing where that implement moves, is moving to, and adjusting the tractor accordingly.”

When using implement guidance, it’s important to make sure all the measurements are correct so the tractor can stay on the strip, Youngblut says.

“Having this technology set up properly is very important because the further off of the strip that you are, the more chance for yield reduction you're going to get.”

Youngblut emphasizes again how important it is for strip-tillers to know their equipment when it comes to rate control and blockage, as trying to use an old rate controller for equipment it wasn’t intended for could prove problematic.

“I have a lot of guys that will ask, ‘Hey, I got an old liquid module sitting here, and I want to put that on a dry machine. Can I just use that old rate controller, because I really don't want to spend a couple thousand bucks for the new one.’ ‘Nope, don't work that way,’ I tell them. ‘Sorry. It's designed with the wiring and stuff to go on that liquid one.’ Understanding what you have is going to be important, and knowing that they're only set up for one thing or another.”

At the end of the day, Youngblut reminds his customers that ROI is always the most important thing to keep in mind when investing in new precision tools.

“If we're not getting a return on it, is that what we really want?”

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