Moving Ahead of the Agronomy Curve with Premium SWAT MAPS Partner, P.T. Sullivan Agro Inc.

What started as Paul T. Sullivan’s independent agronomy business in 1996 has grown to become a team of six full-time staff who serve farmers in the Ottawa Valley in Eastern Ontario. Now nearly 30 years in business, P.T. Sullivan Agro brings advanced tech and field knowledge to farmers looking to manage productivity, profitability and managing impacts of weather variability.

“We have a skilled team who can anticipate changes or threats in the field. We provide advice that helps farmers to get the most out of what they’re putting into their crop,” says Sullivan. Return on investment is the goal. 

Offering a wide range of services such as pre-season crop planning, in-season crop management, on-farm research and plot work, P.T. Sullivan Agro places value on one-on-one relationships with farmers and provides on-farm consultations. With in-field assessment of soil conditions, crop staging and root development, the team prides themselves on authenticity in observations and advice. By developing a crop rotation, and unique hybrid selection, fertility and pest management program by field, they set up the season for best management approaches and outcomes.

“Scouting has been a big part of our business. Our staff, including summer interns, spend time in field monitoring crop development, soil sampling, and taking plant tissue for analysis,” says Sullivan. “In Ontario, farmers appreciate in-season information. We have found that a systems approach of soil and topography-based sampling and mapping provides timely data. With data in-hand, growers can see the value in precision ag practices like variable rate applications”

A key agronomy offering is the use of the SWAT ECOSYSTEM, which brings comprehensive understanding to what’s happening in the field - the soil, water availability and field topography. Sullivan says integrating SWAT MAPS into their agronomy work bring what growers may be seeing in the field into maps and data that can provide the basis for better management of crop inputs.  

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“We use these SWAT concepts to categorize low spots or water collecting areas, shoulder slopes, upper slopes, and so on. We have SWAT MAPS embedded into our scouting platform so that we can easily scout fields based on SWAT zones. We use SWAT information in everything we manage in the field. It becomes a very powerful tool to have at our fingertips.”

Sullivan Agro began pursuing corn hybrid evaluation trials to observe the impact of stress on yield components in corn development time periods in 2019. Understanding important yield factors such as kernels per acre, kernel mass (perhaps both simultaneously), and overlaying that information onto a SWAT MAP allows them to create planting prescriptions to increase or decrease populations according to probability of moisture availability. Similar work in soft winter wheat is also underway. 

“We can now anticipate where those differences will be in the field. Understanding corn hybrid characteristics offers a perspective like never before and pulls everything together in a way so we can act on variable rate seeding and fertility, as well as fungicide applications based on the soil textures and water holding capacities. These are agronomy concepts that we are building upon with SWAT maps.”

The SWAT MAPS Team is proud to work alongside passionate service providers like P.T. Sullivan Agro. Learn more about their business and what’s happening in their corner by following them on social media or visiting their website:

X: @SullivanAgro
Website: https://sullivanagro.ca/ 

Contact:
Paul Sullivan, CCA-ON
613-223-2317
paul@sullivanagro.ca

Farmers: visit https://swatmaps.com/find-a-service-provider/ to find a SWAT MAPS Service Provider near you.