Field Scouting
Field scouting is a prerequisite for making any management decision about your field. It reduces uncertainty, prevents unnecessary treatments, and provides an assessment of whether your management strategies are working. Our crop scouting service is aimed at finding and controlling crop pests and injury before they can cause economic damage.
During a field visit our team is trained to observe and identify any signs of crop damage such as thinning, stunting, early dying, discoloration, damaged stems or leaves, etc. Each field scout is equipped with FieldX scouting and reporting software to record their observations about planting, chemical applications, tillage, harvest, field plans, and scouting. When a recommendation is required our field scouts issue a detailed report out lining growth stage, crop observations, field conditions, and weeds/insects. If a product application is required the recommendation includes product rates, total amounts needed, and mixing instructions for easy planning and purchasing.
Why use a field scout? It is very easy to misdiagnose a crop problem because many symptoms of plant stress, disease, insect damage, soil compaction, and nutrient deficiencies can look similar. And while it may seem that diseases and insects appear over night, they usually start in small numbers and multiply and spread. Regular scouting is the only way to collect information about the presence of pests or crop injury needed to make sound management decisions before it’s too late.
What do our field scouts do? With our scouts you can expect to receive routine field visits to check:
- Pre-seed early weed detection and potential burn off recommendations
- Seed establishment, early weed detection, and herbicide application timing
- Disease & insect scouting depending on forecasts and/or outbreaks
- Pre-harvest staging, swath timing, and desiccation recommendations