Another 14 percent of the crop acres were farmed by producers who gave only slight consideration to crop consultants. In contrast, farmers who did not consider information from crop consultants in making their decision about the amount of nitrogen to apply operated 39 percent of the land. Once again, there were significant differences between dryland and irrigation farmers in the value they placed on information from crop consultants in deciding how much nitrogen to apply. Only 9 percent of the dryland farmers said crop consultant recommendations were very important to them for this decision, but 29 percent of the irrigation farmers indicated these recommendations were very important. Many consultants were active in the area of irrigation management advice to farmers.
Many factors influence the use of crop consultants by farmers.
The type of crop grown, whether the crop is irrigated, the risk of crop damage, the debt load of the farmer, the size of the farming operation, the labor available, and the cost of the service all influence the decision by farmers to employ a consultant. Many farmers do their own scouting and do not need to hire the service. Often particular pest problems during a cropping season or the need for reassessment of the fertility levels in the soil may encourage farmers to buy the service. Consulting services may be provided as a package with the custom application of pesticide or fertilizer by commercial firms and cooperatives. In these cases the joint service of scouting and application may be sold to the farmer for one price.