Farmer Reported Variety Yields

One of the farm's most important inputs is information. Farmers weigh a large number of variables in deciding what, how and when to plant.

Alberta Management Insights is another information resource to bring actual field production results and information to Alberta farmers.

What is Alberta Management Insights (AMI)?

At its core, AMI is a province-wide "test plot" using actual production results from over 14,000 farms in Alberta that participate in crop insurance. The information is re-packaged in an easy-to-use format to help farmers make better cropping decisions.

Alberta Management Insights is the result of a government partnership. Agriculture Financial Services Corporation (AFSC) is the "manager" of the information and the lead on the project, and Alberta Agriculture and Food is an integral partner in the development and delivery of the AMI information. a

How to use this factsheet

This "Crop Variety Performance Comparisons" factsheet shows comparative data on the main provincial crop varieties, based on reported or measured yield of insured fields planted with common or certified seed.

The comparison is available for each of nine different soil zones on nine separate factsheets. Producers in each soil zone can check which variety for each crop performed the best in that zone.

The information in the attached charts also shows up to five years of data, so farmers can review variety performance under weather conditions that vary from year to year.

Farmers will note that not every crop variety will be in the attached charts. The data will contain the main varieties insured, with the criteria being a minimum of 1,000 acres or five "observations" to make the list. Blanks in the charts indicate that the variety did not reach the minimum criteria that year.

In addition, management and environmental influences have not been standardized in the data, so caution is advised when comparing varieties. For example, stubble and summerfallow yields were averaged for the 2002-2006 data; thus a variety seeded on relatively more summerfallow acres will result in a skewed yield advantage. Comparisons are the most meaningful for those varieties that have many acres and years of data collected.

How will I benefit from AMI information?

The Alberta Management Insights project is a valuable resource for Alberta farmers because of the detailed and comparative information it contains. Although information of a similar nature is available through other sources, it is based on much smaller test plots.

Information provided through Alberta Management Insights is based on actual seeded (and insured) crops on approximately 9.5 million acres in Alberta - a scale much broader than was previously available in Alberta.

These charts, then, serve as valuable management benchmarks. Farmers can compare yields achieved on their farms to the "real world" area averages to get an indication of how their own crop yields measured up. Decisions can then be made to improve or maintain management practices.

Armed with accurate, regional crop information of this kind, farmers will be able to make better variety selection decisions and more informed management decisions. That approach ultimately helps improve the farm's bottom line.

Access to current AMI Information

Alberta Management Insights (AMI Information) crop variety and yield information is published by AFSC, in co-operation with Alberta Agriculture and Food, as an on-line service that allows you to find information based on your legal land description.


What about confidentiality with this kind of information sharing?

Information shared under Alberta Management Insights will be kept confidential. No individual information will be identified, other than that provided to AFSC customers about their own land. General information will be shared on an area basis only.

In addition to these conditions, where data is limited to a specific or identifiable area, the results will not be published to protect the identity of individual farmers.

Please update your bookmarks to http://www.agric.gov.ab.ca/app96/loadrptinput