One of the most popular tools in Ag Leader’s SMS Advanced software is the Multi-Year Averages tool. This allows growers to take multiple years of the same kind of data (such as harvest) and merge the data into one layer. This allows them to see trends like where the different areas of productivity are in the field. For fields that have been worked over the years, growers probably have a feeling for these zones already, but this tool allows the user to put numbers to those zones. Years of data that fall outside of the normal, such as from hail damage or other abnomalies, can then be filtered.

While Yield Data is the most common, growers can run this tool on any kind of data. For example, this tool can be run to see if there is any relation between productivity and average fertility in fields that have multiple years of Grid Soil Sampling. As long as the datasets are numerically based, they can be analyzed.

In years such as this where there are many in the corn belt that are experiencing the most severe drought in over 20 years, this data can possibly show areas where their fields have less water holding capacity. Using this information may provide guidance for growers when considering plant populations or fertilizer applications down the road, particularly if they are considering VRT application.

This video shows how to setup a multi-year average dataset:

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