At Mäkipää farm in Loimaa, a variety of crops are cultivated, and the crop plan is created using the Wisu crop planning program. Planning fertilization and cultivation requires careful attention, which is why it’s convenient to do them in advance with Wisu. “A good plan makes it easier to grasp the big picture and thus also facilitates practical work when the basics are in place,” says farmer Eero Mäkipää.
Crop rotation and fertilization planning with Wisu
Mäkipää has been satisfied with using Wisu. “Wisu provides a good user experience and supports farmers in more efficient and accurate crop planning,” says Eero Mäkipää. When field work begins, field-specific notes can be made and updated using MobiWisu, updating the information in Wisu in real-time. Wisu also enables crop rotation planning. “With Wisu, it’s easy to see which crops were cultivated in each field during the previous growing season,” says Mäkipää. “Making a fertlizer plan is also important, and with Wisu, it is possible to examine for example the calculated nutrient balance”.
The fertilizer plan has been mad on the farm, and when fertilizers have been ordered, the fertilizer level is adjusted according to the characteristics of the crop or field. “You have to choose a fertilizier that is suitable for the field and the crop. Not the same for everything, but also not too large a selection, either,” ponders Mäkipää. “Following the environmental compensation guidelines, I try to utilize yield-based adjustmnets. It largely depends on how much fertilization is allowed”.
Digitalization as Part of Farm Operations
Wisu is a next-generation crop planning program and it offers features of smart farming, which Mäkipää finds very interesting. Information obtained form satellite images’ vegetation indexes provided by the program is utilized in fertilizer planning on the farm.”It gets you off to a good start in precision farming,” Mäkipää rejoices. “I can make more precise decisions regarding fertilization and achieve better results in cultivation”.
Utilizing spatial data in Wisu also succeeds by incorporating, for example, yield maps and drone imaes into the service. Mäkipää is pleasedthat the program also allows the creation of work guidance files for agricultural machinery using Isobus technology. “This siplifies workflow and ensures smoother collaboration between different pieces of machinery”.
Mäkipää also uses Wisu’s mobile version, MobiWisu, in his work. It makes it easy to make entries, for example, into the field ledger directly from the field. “The best thing about MobiWisu is making map entries in the field. You can mark, for instance, a large rock, a spring eye, or a drainage outlet, so you remember to avoid them next spring as well,” Mäkipää explains.
According to Mäkipää, Wisu has proven to be a very user-friendly system. He has received quick responses to questions through Minun Maatilani software support and customer service. “Wisu has simplified our farm operations so that we have been able to get a long-term perspective through its crop rotation feature. Because of this, we can plan future fertilizer purchases and crop choices much further ahead,” Mäkipää shares.