COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Crop Nutrition Week was held in early February to help farmers master the intricacies of crop nutrition, nutrient management and fertilizer efficiency.
With tight margins, farmers are looking for ways to save money without sacrificing plant health and yields.
“There’s a hidden math behind every fertilizer application,” said Reid Abbott, AgroLiquid agronomist. “Understanding everything from the costs of what you’re buying to uptake rates and environmental impact on nutrient availability will help you make adjustments that can unlock significant profitability gains.”
Here are five takeaways from Crop Nutrition Week.
1. Test your soil. It may be tempting to cut soil testing when budgets are tight, but farmers should consider soil testing to provide insight into what nutrients are needed.
“Working with a trusted adviser can help take the pressure off by giving you a clear picture of what that report means and how you can apply your fertility accordingly,” said Stephanie Zelinko, AgroLiquid agronomist.
2. There’s a difference between price per pound and cost per acre. Crop nutrition prices can be confusing. With prices listed in tons, gallons and pounds, comparing liquid, dry and specialty blends often leads growers to focus on price per unit.
However, the base fertilizer price doesn’t tell the whole story, Abbott said.
“A lot of retailers will give a cost for products like 10-34-0, MAP, DAP or urea, and that cost per ton circulates the industry quite readily,” he said.
“But there are a lot of things that get added to those tons that don’t show up in that initial quote, whether it’s micronutrients, proprietary technology or additives to help stabilize the fertilizer. If you’re not accounting for everything that needs to be added to make them truly comparable, you could be missing important costs that affect your total per-acre investment.”
3. Nutrient availability is more crucial than high application rates for crop success. You can apply all the fertilizer in the world, but if your crop can’t access it you’re just throwing money away, Zelinko said.
Dry fertilizers may provide only 10% to 30% availability in year one, while liquid sources can deliver 70% to 90% availability, she said.
But even highly available nutrients won’t help if roots can’t reach them. Practices like in-furrow and 2×2 placement — 2 inches to the side and 2 inches below the seed at planting — can position nutrients in the proper zone, Zelinko said.
4. Smart nitrogen management breaks expensive habits. Nitrogen can be one of the most expensive parts of a fertility program, but it’s also the one farmers are most likely to over-apply, Abbott said.
Even when you apply the right amount of nitrogen, you’re fighting against four major loss pathways: volatility, leaching, denitrification and immobilization.
Abbott advised more efficient management practices, such as:
• Spoon-feeding throughout the season instead of making one large application.
• Injecting nitrogen to maximize how much gets into the soil rather than sitting on top.
• Applying products that keep nitrogen in forms less susceptible to loss.
• Adjusting rates and timing based on rainfall patterns and soil conditions.
“Nothing works in isolation,” Abbott said. “We all have a rounded nutritional balance in our diets, and plants do, as well.
“There are nutrients like sulfur, manganese and iron that are involved with a lot of the same metabolic processes as nitrogen. If those are deficient or out of balance, then that means our nitrogen program isn’t going to be as efficient, as well.”
5. Don’t forget micronutrients. “You can have the best tractor and the best implement, but without the hitch pin connecting them, you’re not getting any work done,” Abbott said.
He described micronutrients as critical connectors that make the whole system function.
For more resources, visit cropnutritionweek.com.
