Detailed insight helps to guide on-farm decisions

"It was brand new and there was only one mapping program at that stage and you could just colour in the paddock with the variety," he said.

But he thought the idea had potential and, since then, has been upgrading and improving his use of yield maps, VRT and soil mapping, with big benefits for his 1500-hectare farm.

Mr Glover farms with wife Carla and parents Ian and Sue across three properties at Yeelanna. They grow about 60 per cent cereals - usually wheat - as well as canola and pulses - lentils, beans and lupins.

The Glovers began yield mapping in 2003 and using VRT in 2010.

Mr Glover says having detailed information has given them insight into what helps their land perform best.

"This region never really did much liming, there was a need as everyone thought they had high pH," he said.

"We thought it was a pH range between 6 and 8.4 and through yield mapping, we found 120ha on our farm had pH below 5."

Mr Glover said this news encouraged them to try liming, as well as deep ripping for their sandier soils, starting about three years ago.

He said the combination had the benefit of bringing up potassium, while also breaking up soil compaction.

"In most of my soils, we have lower potassium and higher pH below the 30 centimetre mark," he said.

"On our radiometrics, our potassium maps have a 90 per cent correlation to pH and DGT phosphorus."

As a result of these practices, last year the Glovers were able to grow lentils where they had never been able to before.

Mr Glover said it was important to trial new techniques in their own paddocks and "ground truth" them.

They also trialled ripping clay soils but had not seen any benefits.

The 2018-19 season was also the first they were able to use VRT for their nitrogen application.

"We use less N but also put N where it is able to be used best," he said. "That was my highest yielding paddock but we're still yet to go through and look at yield maps against VRT to see if lost out or picked up any benefit."

Mr Glover said using VRT enabled them to guide their inputs more closely.

He said their MAP fertiliser use had dropped in the past decade, while urea had probably increased - "but we're also pushing for a higher yield".

"Across the past 25 years, (there has) probably been a 600 kilogram yield increase across the 1500ha," he said.

Mr Glover also owns a grain storage business C&C Agriculture, which places pressure on getting farm work done efficiently.

From this year, the entire farm will be converted to a controlled traffic system - a project six years in the making. He has converted the remaining machinery from a 2.2-metre system to a 3m system, to fit their header.

A recent seeder tractor, a Magnum Rowtrac, was converted to a 3m kit, while the spraying tractor and boom spray have also been converted.

WITH a wide range of new technology and research being introduced into agriculture, Chad Glover said many factors needed to be considered when deciding what to trial on his farm.

"When we're trying something new, we look a the cost and the dollar return on that cost," he said.

"Then there is talking to other people, going to expos and symposiums and learning about what others are doing in the industry.

"But what works on my farm won't always work on someone else's."

Mr Glover said there was also the opportunity to learn from other industries about technologies they were using and how they could be incorporated on-farm.

"What I'm seeing is a lot of money being spent on research that has already been done in one industry and can be used in another," he said.

Mr Glover sits on the executive committee for the Society of Precision Agriculture Australia, which is holding a precision agriculture expo at Cummins next month.

He said the last event in the region was seven years ago, at Port Lincoln, and across that seven-year rotation, they tried to cover as much of the state as possible.

"We want to give everybody a chance to go to one or two expos in their region in a seven-year period," he said.

The Cummins PA Expo is on March 5, with registrations closing March 1.