Michael and Dan Gehling held up maps colored with reds, greens and yellows last fall in Grand Meadow’s CHS Inc. office in Grand Meadow.

“It all starts with this,” Dan said pointing to the myriads of colors.

What might look a bit like a weather map to some is far more intricate and complex. And as the harvest bustled toward its conclusion outside, Michael was already using those soil maps and soil analyses to help farmers look ahead to future seasons.

Michael is the YieldPoint specialist at CHS in Grand Meadow, helping farmers use YieldPoint Precision Ag Services. He’s a bit like a pharmacist for the soil. Michael and CHS complete soil sampling and analyze data from year-to-year to make prescriptions for chemicals and nutrients to use on the soil to maximize yields.

Weak soil doesn’t necessarily equal more fertilizer. The goal is to help find the best combination of fertilizers and different tactics that end with the most money in a farmer’s pocket at the end of the day

“We want to find out what rate made you the most money,” Dan said.

The process starts with a soil test, which is traditionally completed in the summer. Dan then breaks it down into farm maps with geo-referenced points so a farmer can go back over a soil map and track changes.

Soil tests assign values on things like organic matter in the soil, phosphorous levels, potassium levels, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and more.

The soil test is typically updated every four years. That allows farmers to compare and track what happened.

“You look at your yield map and you say, ‘What the heck’s going on? I’m not getting the same amount of bushels as I usually do,’” Michael said. “Well then you can look at what your soil test values have done over the last four years ago until now.”

Once the soil map is complete, Michael not only comes up with a fertilizer plan and how much it will cost, but he also includes the estimated cost and yield losses from not using fertilizer through an average per acre.

Michael can adjust the equations and make different recommendations based on what farmers want from their field. For example, he can write an equation for a farmer to maintain soil levels and another equation for farmers to build up their land. Dan wanted to improve the soil on the land he owns, but he just wanted to maintain it on land he rents.

The maps of strong green spots and weak red spots is a 160-acre plot of his father Dan’s land.

“I want to make sure those areas get hit as a farmer,” Dan said.

“It’ll assign a higher fertilizer rate to be applied there,” he added, pointing to one of the red areas.

The whole idea is to improve yields, but that doesn’t always mean pumping fertilizer — and money — into soil that doesn’t need it or onto soil that’s most cost effective.

Instead of using the same amount and type of fertilizer across the entire field, Michael and CHS’s work help the farmers only use fertilizer where it’s most needed.

“Instead of flat-rating a constant rate, I’m actually maybe using less fertilizer because I’m not using as much up here,” Michael said pointing to a green area.

When it comes to fertilizers, knowledge is indeed power, but it also equates to money too. While the goal is to address variability across an entire field, Dan said some sandy soils can only be improved so much. But soil types can really produce if they’re boosted.

Dan said he likes to go a little above and beyond and tries to be aggressive in boosting his yields on his own land, while he said he may be a bit more conservative on rented land so he doesn’t improve yields, stop renting the land and leave money on the table. Plus, some land will only improve so much, no matter how much fertilizer is used.

Using the Yield Point software, Michael can make a prescription and send it to farmers in their tractor using slingshot technology, which is similar to Wi-Fi or cell signals. Before, farmers had to load the information onto a USB flash drive, which some still do if they have older technology.

“I can send that directly to the floater spraying fertilizer,” Michael said.

That technology then does the heavy lifting of applying the fertilizer at the proper point in the field.

Dan has gotten a unique insight into various products in recent years. Dan does a lot of test plots to gauge new or altered products with the University of Minnesota or companies.

“That’s what I enjoy the most is just to see the differences and try new products,” Dan said. “That’s exciting.”

Typically, he’ll plant and try various products and fertilizers in thin strips across a field. Once a farmer sees how a product works over the course of several years, then he or she can decide whether to use it on more of the field.

Typically, Michael said you want three test strips to then average the results.

The test plots track many years of data over varied weather, soil types, growing seasons and more to show how the crops respond through the years to help make decisions.