SWAT Agronomy

In this episode of the SWAT Agronomy podcast we feature Chris Hawkins. Chris is the sales director at Croptimistic Technology based in Saskatchewan. In that role he serves both farmers directly as well as the partners that Croptimistic works with. He’s also responsible for the partner services side of the business, so one of his key objectives is to help their partners grow their businesses.
Chris tells host Tim Hammerich talk about his path from the family farm to farm machinery to now ag tech. They also talk more about his experiences working with SWAT MAPS customers, why they don’t have a big sales team, and the path forward for precision agriculture.
“ When we can build a zone map for our farmers that is built on those stable properties, and they can count on that map being accurate year after year after year. Then they realized that they can manage those zones better than they could ever do in the past.” - Chris Hawkins
Follow Chris on X: @SWATMAPSHawk

Key Moments:
00:00 Introduction to SWAT Agronomy
00:48 Guest Introduction: Chris Hawkins
02:10 Chris Hawkins' Career Journey
03:43 Understanding Precision Agriculture
08:44 Challenges and Solutions in Agronomy
13:52 Partner Services and Growth
21:48 Future of Agriculture Technology
24:21 Conclusion and Farewell

Learn more at SWATMAPS.com.

Brett McArtor joins the show to talk about how he using SWAT MAPS in his role as senior research associate at Corteva Agriscience. Since graduating from Iowa State, Brett has remained focused on working directly with farmers to perform trials and research projects on their operations. His work has always involved farmer-led science to determine how new products fit into management systems and how they affect the bottom line.
“What does variability within a field mean? I mean, every field has variability, but to what degree is that variability? And is it yield limiting? Is it something that we need to make a decision on? And that's where that boots on the ground part comes in, where we're, we use that SWAT data to go back out, identify what's actually going on in that field.” - Brett McArtor

Brett dives into why and how a company like Corteva Agriscience is using precision ag technology, and why SWAT MAPS in particular.

00:00 How Brett thinks about field variability

00:32 Assessing the degree and relevance of variables in a field

00:36 Impact on yield and decision making

00:40 Field analysis with SWAT data

Learn more at SWATMAPS.com

Paul Sullivan (Twitter/X) joins the show to talk about the challenges he and his farmers are dealing with in his area of Eastern Ontario. We discuss some really interesting population trials that he’s doing, fertility issues coming off years of high fertilizer prices, and what difference SWAT MAPS has made for him and his farmer customers.
“When we look at yield, yield is a component of kernel number times kernel weight, and that gives us basically yield per acre. So with the definition of the SWAT MAPS we feel those yield components, we can kind of connect the genetics with the water supplying capacity in addition to the management of the farm.” - Paul Sullivan
Paul is a certified crop consultant and agronomist in Eastern Ontario. He has operated his agronomy services firm, PT Sullivan Agro, since 1997, and started using SWAT MAPS in recent years. His area of the province, which is just outside of Ottawa, is mostly corn, soybeans and wheat. Paul’s work focuses on developing crop plans around nutrient management, pH, pesticides, and some genetic recommendations as well.
Before starting the business, Paul spent eight years as a soil and crop advisor with the ministry of agriculture and food covering three counties with the provincial extension group there. So he has a long history of working directly with farmers to solve agronomic problems.

00:00 Welcome to SWAT Agronomy Podcast
00:26 Introduction to Today's Episode
00:55 Meet Paul Sullivan
02:23 Paul's Agronomy Journey
02:49 Early Challenges and Solutions
04:48 Soil and Fertility Issues
06:18 Managing Crop Residue
08:28 Adopting SWAT MAPS
14:47 Population Trials and Hybrid Management
21:03 Impact of SWAT Maps on Business
23:20 Conclusion and Farewell

Learn more at SWATMAPS.com

In this episode of the SWAT Agronomy podcast, Derek Rude, VP of Research and Development at Croptimistic Technology, discusses the evolution of precision ag technologies like SWAT MAPS and SWAT CAM. The conversation touches upon the development of precision agriculture tools, advancements in soil mapping, challenges in scaling SWAT MAPS, the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning models, and the introduction of SWAT CAM for crop and weed imaging. Derek highlights the importance of data integration, higher resolution soil sampling, and future improvements using AI and autonomous technologies to enhance efficiency and agronomic decision-making.
“The real value is tying that data back to the SWAT zones. Because we know all of these critical properties: the soil properties, the water properties of these SWAT zones. So now we can really better explain what the SWAT CAM data is telling us, because we have that foundation, that SWAT foundation. So we can go take some pictures of some fields and show some variability. That's cool. But until we tie it back to the SWAT foundation, it doesn't have that big value that it does now.” - Derek Rude

00:00 Welcome to the SWAT Agronomy podcast
00:33 Introduction to Today's Episode
01:49 Meet Derek Rude: Background and Experience
02:37 Challenges and Innovations in SWAT Technology
03:24 The Evolution of SWAT BOX
04:21 SWAT BOX Features and Advancements
07:24 Integrating AI and Machine Learning
10:48 SWAT CAM: Crop and Weed Imaging
12:07 Future Directions and Challenges
18:12 Adoption and Feedback on SWAT CAM
22:19 Autonomous Soil Sampling and Ground Truthing
28:56 Final Thoughts and Contact Information

Learn more at SWATMAPS.com

We have a really special episode for you as we sit down with Les Henry. Retired in 1996, Les is a professor emeritus at the University of Saskatchewan, a private consultant, and farmer. He is a renowned soils expert and in 2010 he released a lighthearted book about his passion for soils titled “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water”. He has taught and mentored many farmers, agronomists and ag professionals over the years, and his impact on the industry cannot be overstated.
In today’s episode, Les reflects on his career milestones including conducting soil surveys, helping farmers solve problems like soil salinity, teaching and research he has done both in Canada and abroad, his 48 years of writing, his views on farmer-led research and extension and much much more.
“At the end of the meeting, a farmer got up and said, 'you told us what we already knew in language we couldn't understand and took all day to do it. And he was right! So on the way home, I said to my department head, we have to do something different here. That was something I'll remember forever.” - Les Henry

1:56 Henry’s background and how he started his career
3:06 Working on soil surveys and getting started in teaching
4:12 The importance of listening to farmers
6:30 Henry’s work on salinity
12:24 The five years Les spent on soil surveys
13:44 Work in soil fertility
15:44 What’s different from what he used to teach about soils?
19:36: Writing “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water”
23:15 The top takeaway from Les’ writing
25:18 Research needs to start with a real problem
26:00 Recent writing on cover crops
28:00 Variable rate and SWAT MAPS
34:03 Government interference
35:36 What Les is most proud of
37:50 Doing things “My Way”

Purchase a copy of “Henry’s Handbook of Soil and Water”

Learn more at SWATMAPS.com.