The new year is underway, so it’s time to dial up your planning for the coming growing season. With commodity prices demanding thorough preparation, data will be critical to ensuring you get the most out of every field in 2017. Take time now to evaluate how you’re using data to make decisions on your farm and determine how you can get more from the information available to you. Here’s a look at how the Answer Plot ® team uses data to power seed placement and help farmers place inputs precisely and effectively. Determining seed placement through replication and localized conditions A multitude of factors must be considered to place hybrids for optimum performance, including response to soil type, response to population, rotation and specific growing conditions. Because of the many factors that affect seed placement, quality data play a critical role in making decisions confidently. Through the Answer Plot ® Program, we replicate hybrids and varieties at nearly 200 locations across the country in diverse soil types and growing conditions to determine how to best utilize each hybrid in a multitude of environments and cropping systems. Recommendations for placement and management are backed by high-quality data that we’re able to maintain due to low trial error . Trial error represents factors we cannot see or anticipate that affect outcomes, which could include weather, disease, insect pressure, soil variability and other factors. The more replications, the smaller the margin of error. Using data to inform input decisions The WinField ® United data analytics team is made up of 70 people who gather, analyze and organize data from the test plots then put the information into a useable form. For example, through the R7 ® Tool , response to nitrogen and fungicide scores are available for particular hybrids. These scores give you insights on how to prioritize your inputs based on the needs of specific hybrids in unique environments. To learn more about incorporating different types of data into your decision-making process, contact your local WinField ® United retailer .