More than 2,000 growers are now part of the MZB’s zone-based precision farming system, thanks to a roundtable discussion at the Precision Farming Dealer Summit held this past winter.  Participation in the summit has lead to participation in a partnership for MZB Technologies and Garden City Co-op (GCC).

Garden City Co-op is now a provider of MZB’s platform, which provides up to 12 management zones based on Veris EC information and RTK elevation readings, as well as satellite imagery and yield data.  Growers have access to exact nutrient replacement requirements thanks to geo-referenced zone soil sampling.

Garden City Co-op covers about 200,000 acres of irrigated corn, 300,000 acres of dryland grain sorghum and 550,000 acres of wheat.  Most of this acreage sits in the Ogallala aquifer.  This new geographical location offers means lots of center pivot irrigation and new possibilities for MZB.

“This adds tremendous value to our MZB footprint, given the different geography,” explains Brent Wiesenburger, precision ag manger for MZB’s owner company, Wheat Growers Association. “Garden City will play a key role in helping MZB become an even more robust agronomy tool that will allow us to grow into other markets.”

“We feel the tools MZB offers are a perfect fit for our crop production practices,” Michael Kempke, GCC’s Director of Precision Agriculture, says. “The zone management concept will help us manage different zones in our customers’ fields for seeding and fertility with the different crop situations we have out here with both irrigation and dry land. Our growers will see an agronomic and economic benefit with MZB. It makes it easy for our agronomists to understand and use, and easy for our growers to see exactly what their needs are.”

Garden City Co-op expects to see many of their members taking advantage of this program, especially in June after the winter wheat is harvested, according to Kempke.  “Once the wheat harvest is done, we’ll be able to get into the fields and do the Veris work, getting the maps made so we’ll have prescriptions ready to go for the row crops that will go in next spring.”