Farming Video | Cut Inputs, Keep Yields: Cotton Trial with Todd Kimbrell

00:00:00 We're talking about low use rates and how you can apply less and still keep the same yield. We're talking about maintaining yield in this cotton crop. 00:00:07 It's a plot that's at McGee, Arkansas. Matt Miles Field Day is going on behind the camera and it's a hell of a field day. 00:00:13 I've got Todd Kimble, Texas. Todd Kimble as you known, he's a cotton producer about 70 miles south of Dallas and we've got Chase 00:00:19 Garner here with spray tech. Uh, definitely exciting stuff here. You wanna spend less money, 68 cent cotton, Todd, you need 00:00:27 to try and figure out how to maintain yield and spend less because you're not gonna change the price of cotton. 00:00:31 That's right. Cotton's tough. Maybe economically the toughest thing we're growing right now to make it work. 00:00:36 'cause it's such an input intensive crop. So every little thing we can save, or I don't wanna say cut 'cause cut and we all know what that does. 00:00:45 Right. Cut's bad. So everything we can do to improve our efficiency on this cotton. You talked about before the camera came on, 00:00:51 that you are a big fan of the spray tech. Adjuvant. Adjuvant to me means it's, it's, it, its, it's like the, it's like the catalyst. 00:00:57 It's the thing that makes the product work better. What does it do For you? So 00:01:01 it's kind of crazy. It takes so many different products that we're putting out and puts 'em in one little jug. 00:01:08 I don't know the science, I don't know how to explain it. That's what he's for. But we're taking two totes off 00:01:12 of our nurse trailer Yep. And putting it in one little jug. Plus it has more stuff in it. 00:01:17 Just that fact alone that I can take all that trouble. Mm-hmm. Takes a lot of logistics out of our spraying, which is a huge deal. 00:01:24 We're out here spraying, especially cotton. We have short windows and we're trying to knock it out. Does the adjuvant allow you to use less 00:01:29 product? Absolutely. Absolutely. It's so concentrated. That's where I was going. We take totes off our trailer 00:01:34 and we're still doing the same thing, but now I'm pretty sure we're doing better. But you could point on to that. 00:01:40 I chase, what are we gonna see out here when we talk about reducing rates of, of applications, 00:01:44 because we've gotta, we've got to reduce the spend. What are we looking at? So For years we've had to put, you know, pints, half gallons, 00:01:51 gallons of product to get it into the plant. Yep. We're doing it with ounces. Okay. It's gonna be our, our application technology 00:01:57 that we're using to get it into the plant. We're actually able to get it, get it into the plant and hold it there. 00:02:02 And those nutrient levels, if you do sap tests, which we were very proactive with our SAP test and our tissue test here, 00:02:08 we're actually seeing those nutrient levels holding for longer periods of time by foliar feeding. You grow cotton in Texas, 00:02:14 y'all are probably putting lot of dry potassium. Getting that into the plant sometimes is difficult with the foliar feed and 00:02:19 we're able to get it into the plant. We're not seeing deficiencies in the cotton like we normally do. Alright. 00:02:24 What do we cut back on specifically? What do we, in a plot like this, what are we, what are we showing? 00:02:27 Is, is it really about cutting back or is it more just about reducing rates and then applying it at the right time? 00:02:32 It's gonna be applying at the right time and reducing rates. Okay. So we're doing this with four ounces. Okay. 00:02:37 This plot alone has four different products. All of those products are at a four ounce use Rate. Chase, can you give me an 00:02:43 economic number? Are we, are we reducing the spend by 50 bucks an acre? Are we reducing the spend by a hundred bucks an acre? 00:02:49 Every nickel matters in an environment like this. My, my test this year, I'm somewhere seen 60 and $70 an acre. 00:02:55 Less of deduct of Deduct. That might be more than your margin in a year like this. Absolutely. With cotton at the way, the price, 00:03:01 everything is absolutely every little bit counts. As a farmer, what do you wanna see on a reduced rate trial in cotton? 00:03:08 Uh, well, first off that it works. Yeah. Oh yeah. First off that it works. And I'm gonna say it's like the adjuvant, 00:03:13 he brought me the adjuvant. I was like, eh, man, maybe because we're going from totes to jugs, I can put the whole crop's worth in my front seat 00:03:21 of my pickup where I was having totes in my barn. So You, you overcome the skepticism. It works, it worked, 00:03:27 it did work. I can prove that it worked. So as a farmer, you wanna see you've got a OA layer of skepticism and you wanna see that 00:03:31 it works. That's right. And it did all right. He proved it. His name's Todd Kimbrel. 00:03:35 He is joined by Chase Garner here with, uh, spray Tech USA and we are at Matt Miles Field Day coming at you If you 00:03:40 can't make the field days, you know what? That's why you tune in right here. Spray Tech, one of our sponsors. 00:03:44 We got a whole bunch of other people we're gonna be talking to. We're gonna be talking about some really 00:03:46 cool stuff that we're learning. These are all learning experiences. Be sure to sign up for some 00:03:50 of the extreme ag field days that are coming up. There's still time. Damon Mason coming at you from McGee, 00:03:55.835 --> 00:03:56.035