Brian Nadeau

At Fannystelle, Manitoba, seed grower Brian Nadeau has used Cargill's Crop Sense advisor program to help him with his farm management decisions for the past five years.He says that using a crop advisor helps him better manage his time.

"By the time I finish servicing my customers and running my farming operation, I have little time left for jobs like scouting.I would just have enough time to make a little loop through the field or check one spot, and then say, 'yes this is what we are going to do on the whole field'," explains Nadeau.
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Despite the cost, Nadeau believes he gets good value for his money."Some farmers don't like paying $4 or $5 an acre for the service," Nadeau says.
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"I get the 'full meal deal' starting in the fall by getting all of the land soil tested," Nadeau says."In January we sit down with an advisor and make our crop plan.We look at what was planted on each field last year and what kind of yields we had, and look at what we need for next year's crop.When springtime comes we have a plan.We know what crops are going in and know how many pounds of phosphorus, nitrogen, potash and sulphur we are going to use."

During spraying season, Nadeau uses the crop consultants to scout for weeds and he usually has a report on his desk by the evening of the day they scouted."I can't run the Rogator and scout other fields.Having them do the scouting provides a window of opportunity to plan and decide what I am going to spray the next day, or the following day," he says.
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"If you are considering hiring a crop advisor, the first question to ask is how many years of experience the people who will be walking the field have," Nadeau says.