Page 44 October 25, 2013 2013 LOGAN COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com
no real value, but what it does do is help
the farmer monitor productivity of his
acreage in more finite sections.
Klemm said this can be
especially important for
those who are acquiring
land on a regular basis
through ownership or rent
agreements.
“My dad and I have been
farming the family acreage
for our entire lifetimes,
and we know and can share
the history of the fields,” he
said.
But that family acreage is only
a portion of the whole farm today.
Klemm said that as he takes on new
acreage, he doesn’t have that history in his
head. Instead he has it in his computer.
He noted that as he goes through the field, he
uses “tags” in his software to note specific field
conditions. This benefits him in the fall when he
goes to harvest and sees a significant change in the
yield in a specific area.
“I can look at my data and see what went on in this
field in the spring,” he said.
Klemm said this starts the creation of a history that
can be tracked on the computer, just like he tracks
the family farm in his head.
In addition to being of value to the owner, it
could also be of value to the buyer of
a piece of land. This documented
history can help a land buyer
or even a renter to gain an
understanding of what
might come out of that
field. For a buyer, this
is important because
he wants to invest
dollars into productive
acreage. For a renter,
this can help determine
whether the land is
worth the cash rent,
whether the rent should
be on some other basis
such as sharecropping, or
if he should just say “pass.”
Klemm said another asset of
the data tracking system is in the
stewardship of the land. Farmers today
are environmentally aware. They don’t want to
produce chemical runoff in our waterways. Knowing
and understanding the natural drainage of a field can
help determine what type and how much chemical
they should use for the field and the crop, with as
little waste or residue as possible.
The physical landscape of the central Illinois farm
has changed over the years, Klemm noted. He said
he has spent a great deal of time traveling within his
accounting service area. He noted that in the earlier
days of his travels, he could visually notice the
difference in farming practices in the field. Those
practices related directly to how the farmer was
managing his business.
