Grower Spotlight: Jayson Willimack on Nitrogen Systems & QuickDraw

Stories from the field gives us a chance to hear directly from growers who are using SurePoint technology in their operations. Jayson Willimack from Oxford Junction, Indiana, shared how his team uses SurePoint’s Application Systems and QuickDraw to gain efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings.

A Smarter Nitrogen System

“We apply all our nitrogen with our planters. Basically, they took our brand new Deere planters straight from the plant, took it to Trackside, and put our nitrogen system on it with a high-speed pump.

We had a homemade system on our old planters with a rate controller, hydraulic pump off a sprayer, etc. We could only run 6–6.5 mph with a high-speed planter. Now we’ve got one last year and another this year. We’ve got two 24-row planters in corn, plus two Raven Sidekick systems injecting liquid insecticide and nitrogen stabilizer.

We’d been doing nitrogen a long time, but couldn’t get the gallons applied per acre with our old system. On paper, it should’ve worked, but it didn’t. When we started looking at new planters, we connected with the SurePoint team, and they helped us design a system that would work.

The limiting factor to our corn planting was always the nitrogen system. Last season we planted over 6,000 acres of corn between our own farm and custom work. In total we planted more than 10,000 acres and will harvest 9,000. We’ve been really happy with the nitrogen system.”

Investing for Speed and Accuracy

“Part of the motivator was that we could go to John Deere and have the planter come all set up — that was nice. Price-wise it was more expensive than what we had done before, but we felt the better pump and setup, plus the integration into the Deere system, made it worth it. It allows us to be more timely, get more done efficiently, and grow our operation.

We can now plant 6,000 acres in 9 days instead of 12. Having the accuracy, and knowing we have the capability to kick it up a gear if a storm is coming is huge.”

Mixing Made Simple with QuickDraw

“The QuickDraw was another purchase to set up our own mixing station. We also put starter in-furrow with our corn planters.

The QuickDraw mainly mixes chemicals for our sprayer. Before, we were getting hot loads from our retailer.

Now we’ll save enough by mixing our own chemicals to pay for the QuickDraw and the shed we’re putting it in, all in about 18 months or less.

The simplicity was a big plus. We can get everything set up, push a button, and know it will mix accurately. That means a lot, because mistakes are expensive. Most of these chemicals are costly per ounce, and if a batch gets messed up by human error, it’s not cheap.”