How Jeff Fritz Improved His Soybean Yields – Lessons from the Field

00:00:00 Hey guys, this is Temple from Stream Ag and I'm here with Jeff Fritz from, uh, he's, he's another, uh, Marylander. So, 00:00:06 Uh, for the poor side of the, for the, we're, we're the on the poor side Of the No, no, no, no. Well, 00:00:10 let's not say that. Your ground's worth a lot more than mine is on my side. So I ran into Jeff out here. 00:00:15 We're at a cow show, his kids' show, and you know, of course Madeline shows, but, uh, Jeff is one of the guys in the state of Maryland 00:00:22 that, that joined the, the Asgrow yield contest as well. Yep. And you placed what in Maryland? 00:00:28 So I was third, I followed up You Boys. Behind my kids. Yep. Behind my boys. Yep, yep, yep. And then you were Fifth National, right? Yep. Yeah. 00:00:36 So just gimme a run. What do you think changed your, changed your new plan? Because I mean, I know that you've been, 00:00:42 I'm not gonna say struggling, but you've been in that 80 to a hundred bushel for quite a few years. 00:00:48 Yeah. And now you've come across, what was yours last year? 1 24 or one 00:00:52 20? Yeah. 1 24. 1 24. Yep. For the contest. Um, and then our overall farm yield. It, it was incredible. Best we've ever had. 00:01:01 Best bean crop I've ever grown in 24. Well, you know, I think a lot of those, a lot of the stress that we inquired early season. 00:01:08 Yep. You know what I mean? Natural stress. Yes. Natural From, From weather hot when we were reproductive. And then we got a lot of, you know, there were some farms. 00:01:16 Uh, we a little different, you guys got caught some rains that we didn't catch, but we did when we 00:01:20 got into reproduction. You know, we were catching some rains here and there and I think that helped us out a lot. 00:01:25 So it made a big difference. Uh, We do all these things to try to improve. Yep. What we're trying to, you know, trying to accomplish, 00:01:31 but nothing does it any better than mother nature. Right. When she performs the stress that we need on beans. Yep. I've kind of rethought my fertility strategy 00:01:39 and we've talked about this where, um, the dry program really kind of pulled back and I actually looked at a different form this year 00:01:46 and, uh, we went to a different form of potassium up front Okay. With some sulfur. And we ran, uh, some potassium sulfate 00:01:53 or sulfate, a potash. Oh. 50 17. We ran about 30 days ahead of planning the first group of beans that I did that to Best beans we've ever grown. 00:02:03 Average. Really? Yeah. Incredible. But you changed up a lot of other things. Like, I mean, you've really gone after PGS 00:02:09 and some foliar nutrition. Yep. Yep. And you've changed up the way that you fertilized completely. 00:02:14 Same as what I have. You know what I mean? We've, we've had these discussions. I mean, is there any one thing that you'd say that you did 00:02:20 or do you think it's a multitude of all of 'em? It, it's, it's probably a combination of all 00:02:24 of it together now. This was the first year I've ever fungicide beans. I've never been a, uh, soybean fungicide guy. 00:02:31 So that made a huge difference at the end because we ran into that really crummy two weeks of Weather We did In September. 00:02:38 We did. And there was a lot of beans that ended up like salt and pepper around the community where, 00:02:44 You know, you've had a lot of beans in your area got turned down. Yeah. Yeah. We have one load that had a percent dockage 00:02:52 for damage or something like that. It was, it was minimal. And I attribute that to the fact that those beans held on 00:03:00 just long enough. Like they weren't quite ready to cut and we got in this two week of mist and junky weather. Yeah. And they just, those pods stayed green 00:03:09 and I think fungicide and the plants were Healthy. I mean, do you think you're all over, 00:03:12 you're all over fertility program kept the healthier plants, so Oh yeah. It it, you mean like you kind of got past that window 00:03:19 and I know that it could have, that weather could have struck at the exact wrong time on you as well. 00:03:24 Oh yeah. It just, you got by it dumb because your being kind of strung out and stayed healthier longer than they did. 00:03:31 Let's just say the neighbor. I'm not gonna, you know, say the neighbor, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. In the, in our area. So, and it was a real struggle. 00:03:38 We had very little slug damage. I don't know why slug damage, I mean, guys replanting beans two and three times and, 00:03:46 and I can't put a finger on it. Why I didn't have, we replanted some, but not, I mean a very small percentage of our beans. 00:03:54 Um, and I don't know whether it's because we planted green or the little bit. 00:04:01 So we run a little bit in furrow, put a PGR some sugar vic micro pack, a really good micro pack. 00:04:08 Yeah. And did that keep those beans growing? Outgrowing the slugs? 'cause I had slug damage. Maybe they just kind of grew away 00:04:13 From 'em and it is almost like they kind of grew away from it. Um, actually that slug stress, 00:04:19 because there was, I had plenty of feeding, but it, it didn't ruin like guys were replanting. I'm like complete fields. Right. 00:04:27 I didn't have that, but I mean, I had it. I mean, I went out in the field and one night I went, oh my God. 00:04:32 Um, so was that stress early? Were those slugs, is that enough To put it up? I mean, it, 00:04:36 it could have been. I mean, as long as the cod leading doesn't get ate on too bad sometimes they can come out of it. 00:04:41 Yeah. They, you know, and sometimes they just can't. I mean, and it depends on the slug pressure. Sometimes you go out there and 00:04:45 the whole field might be wiped out. Yep, yep. But I mean, do, do you feel like you've, you change your program? Yep. 00:04:51 Well, and we And you've improved your program and, And we've following the, the, the, um, the advice or the strategy of ex of the extreme ag guys 00:05:02 where we're, you know, we're taking, we're putting less dollars up front. Yeah. And then we can pull the plug 00:05:08 on that crop if we need to. I knew what my, and we Thought we were gonna pull the plug completely. Oh. I mean, mean you and I talked back in the summer. 00:05:15 I mean, it was so bad. We thought at one point, like, we're done. Well we had caught some rains. 00:05:19 I had beans flour ahead of the summer solstice. Yeah. We were talking about it. We cut hot and it was so miserable. 00:05:25 Hot and dry. Yep. And we we're like, we're screwed. But when the weather cooled down a little bit and we got time after we got done fooling with wheat, 00:05:32 then we went in with a, you know, we were in that R one and we hit some fertility on it. Micros, uh, PGR. 00:05:39 And then at R three we, we ran the fungicide and insecticide and we do it with a drone. 00:05:44 So I don't have enough room in the tank. I have a big mix For a big mix. So we skipped the fertility at R three 00:05:53 and Yeah. I wish we had So is that something that, I mean, you learned a lot this year. 00:05:58 Yeah. Just to summarize, you changed up your fertility. Yeah. You've added a few more things. It seemed like it paid out. It did. 00:06:05 I mean, you had a big ROI this year. We did. Um, We did. So for next year is your one thing that you're gonna change is you're gonna go back in at like 00:06:11 R three, R four ish with, you know, some type of fertility. Try I Want fertility at R three. 00:06:17 Yeah. Yeah. Because we fooled a little bit on our double crop beans. And our double crop beans were, uh, 00:06:22 as good as we've ever grown. Weep beans. And that was on a bad year. Yeah. We, uh, our weep beans averaged 52 bushels. 00:06:29 Yeah. And that's a, I mean we had a rough year And um, that I've never grown. Only one ever one other time. 00:06:36 Part of that is we got 'em in ahead of the 4th of July. Right. Wheat was early and whatever else, but we ran an R three pass with the adrenal down. 00:06:43 I can't tell you if that made any difference, but I feel like that R three, 'cause I called 'em at R three and I wish, so yeah, 00:06:51 going forward I wanna get fertility in at that R three. 'cause we were at R one and R five with fertility, right. Fungicide insecticide in the middle of R three. 00:07:00 And I really feel like that pass, that's probably, that's probably the pass that I should have had. FII think that some of these passes, like I, 00:07:07 and I think the more that we pull out front and the more that we can completely spoon feed the crop every time that we're making a pass 00:07:13 and you can get in there every crack. I think that that's making the biggest difference. You know, so it, for me it's it's made a lot of sense. Yeah. 00:07:21 It's able to, it's, it's made both of us able to cut back on our upfront fertility cost and we're spoon feeding not only our fertility, 00:07:29 but we're also spoon feeding our financial plans. Well, and you know, $10 soybeans, we made money. Yeah. We made money on $10. Soybeans been nicer if they were 14. 00:07:39 Yeah. Yeah. But it, it's not, and so that's kind of the, the, you know, I lay out a budget and I know what my crop insurance guarantee is 00:07:49 and I know how many dollars I have to spend and that late season fertility and the fungicide and that kind of stuff, even if it's a little borderline, 00:07:57 whether we should do it looking at the crop, I'm a whole lot more comfortable because there's dollars there to do it with. You 00:08:03 Actually have something that you're looking at. Right. I mean, you're actually looking physically at a plant that has got pods set on it 00:08:10 and you can make a really good Yep. Evaluate it. And I think I've actually learned how to stage 'em. Good luck. So, I mean, that's not 00:08:21 That I, I've learned how to do it. We Always seem like we, we got it right on, on the point. And it seems like you go tree plants 00:08:27 down and it's completely different. Well, and it is. And this year that with the early slug damage 00:08:31 and some beans being behind it, was there, there were some challenges to It. The bottoms looked different 00:08:36 in the hills. Uh, yeah. It was rough. My biggest concern to 25 is just gonna do it again. Right. Yeah. Did we have a, was it a fluke? I don't know. 00:08:48 Well, I don't, I'm the luckiest SOB in the county. I mean, you could be. I could be. You could be. But I mean, you've been making improvements every year since 00:08:57 we, you know, I mean, since you and I have become friends and you've been making improvements and it's gotten better 00:09:02 and better and better, I think that you're learning how to fine tune it. Just like we're learning about everything. Well, 00:09:06 And the details matter. Yep. The details matter. And I, I'm not a big operator. You know, we're, we're, well, we're a small operation, so 00:09:15 I have the ability to, to really pay attention to those details. Well, you had to pay attention 00:09:18 because Oh, you know what I mean? Like, uh, 10% of your acres is very different than 10% of, you know, some huge amount of acres. 00:09:26 So, I mean, if you're gonna go do a trial on a hundred acres, it can cost you a lot of money. A lot of money. You know, a guy that does 10, you know, 00:09:33 Matt Miles's got 10,000 acres or more. Yep. He can do a hundred acre trial and it's not that big of a deal. 00:09:37 Nope. It's not that big a deal for me. It's a big deal. Deal. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. And I, and I feel like, you know, a lot 00:09:43 of the smaller farmers, they pay a little bit more attention to detail because it's them too. 00:09:48 Mm-hmm. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not saying big operators don't pay attention. They absolutely pay attention, 00:09:52 but they're also taking advice of their own, you know, they have a on time agronomist that's taking, paying attention to it. 00:09:59 Yeah. You know, they're writing the checks, don't get me wrong. Yep. But a smaller operator is the guy that's in the field 00:10:04 because he can't afford an agronomist. So you're making all your decisions and you're figuring out what the stages are. 00:10:10 You're figuring out everything yourself. Yep. You don't have a guy that's sitting there telling you what you should and shouldn't do for me. 00:10:16 You know what I mean? I think that there's a a huge value to, on both sides. 00:10:20 Yeah. But it takes a mixture of both. And I, and I enjoy scouting. Yeah. I go out in the evening and I, I, I like to do it 00:10:25 and I don't, don't do it every day, but I like to scout. You can't learn anything by sitting in your pickup. 00:10:29 Nope. No. And you gotta walk. Exactly. And, uh, you, you, you seem to pick up some things when you do do some walking, right? 00:10:36 Yep. Sure. Uh, so, uh, that, and I could probably stand a walker. I just a little more, well, you heard it here. 00:10:44 I'm here with Jeff Fritz and I'm Temple from Extreme Ag. Um, Jeff seems like he's learned a lot. 00:10:49 I don't, I don't know how much he really paid attention to, but he, he's done really well. 00:10:53 Um, you know, keep in, keep in touch with us 00:10:56.545 --> 00:10:57.845