The Benefits of Scouting

The Benefits of Scouting
Katherine Vail

Field scouting provides many benefits:

•    Tracking crop growth
•    Detecting weed pressure and crop abnormalities
•    Monitoring soil health
These benefits enable us to provide information back to the grower and allows us to help them make a decision on how to correct or prevent the given issue.

As a second year intern in Salem, scouting for CaroVail has taught me what a good field scout is looking for and how correcting the issue can increase yield and overall crop productivity. Whether it is making a recommendation to respray for weed pressure in field corn or to spray alfalfa for leafhopper, field scouting allows us to make these recommendations in order for your crops to reach maximum performance.

We can provide a management and crop planning program that can bring value to your crop production. Scouting is a critical part of any successful plan because it allows for a program to be put into place before the problem exceeds an economic threshold that would be considered a significant loss. For example, a yield loss of ten percent or greater is considered to have reached economic loss for weed pressure. These weeds have the ability to reduce yield and profitability because they compete for nutrients and moisture, and can create a difficult harvest. Scouting and crop planning allow us to make adequate recommendations and to get your crops to where they need to be for a profitable and high yielding season.