Back-to-Basics: Regional Updates Archive

Economics has been the hot topic in the Northcentral Region, as it has been everywhere. One question that has been recurring is, "How much of a yield loss can I expect if I cut fertilizer rates back?" To address the many aspects of this question, a new series of publications was developed. They are available at http://www.ipni.net/fertilizer2009. Additionally, a simple spreadsheet was developed to help quantify losses expected if a particular nutrient rate was cut back. This tool, termed the Rate Reduction Calculator, helps farmers and their advisers use the law of diminishing returns to get a general estimate of yield losses with rate cuts. The tool is available at http://www.ipni.net/toolbox.

“Agriculture is beset by uncertainty, especially as regards weather and prices.” (C.A. Black, 1993)

Fertilizer prices shot up last year. Crop prices surged and retreated. With uncertainty in global financial markets it’s hard to predict where anything is going in 2009. So what does it mean for the way you manage crop nutrients? First ensure the agronomy behind your management of plant nutrients is sound. Are you using every tool available to choose the right product, to predict the right rate, to apply it at the right time, and to place it where it’s most effective?

The International Plant Nutrition Institute offers several new information sources that sort through the issues and help you improve the use efficiency of plant nutrients. Check out the following:

RESEARCH RESULTS:
The more we work on improving N recommendations, the more we see the strong role played by the weather. A recent symposium focused on the sciences that could be applied to account for weather variability. The proceedings, Managing Crop Nitrogen for Weather, are available for purchase from IPNI. A recent article in Better Crops with Plant Food also summarizes the findings: A Research Agenda for Managing Crop Nitrogen for Weather.

The winter of 2008 to 2009 will be remembered as one of the colder and greater snowfall winters for a couple of decades in the Northern Great Plains. Even though spring doesn’t seem to be too close, it won’t be long until temperatures warm up, the snow melts, and farmers will be getting ready for spring planting. This last part of the winter and early spring is a good time to do maintenance on your planting equipment. Planting itself is always considered an important phase of crop production, but sometimes there needs to be more careful and precise adjustment and maintenance of the equipment used.

This has become even more important in parts of the Northern Great Plains, as the equipment used for planting is also used to apply the fertilizer needs of the crop in the same operation as planting. This is commonly called “One-Pass Seeding”, and has been proven as an effective way to plant and supply fertilizer nutrients to crops in one field operation. These one-pass planting units are referred to as air-drills and are a technical advancement from the earlier air-seeders. Air-seeders were basically the combination of a seed and fertilizer metering system and a pneumatic delivery system combined with a field cultivator. The early air-seeders mixed the seed grain and fertilizer into the same delivery system and delivered this by a hose to a spread-boot behind a cultivator sweep. Packing of the seedbed was done using attached harrows. Below is a picture of an air-seeder.

Because these air-drills are doing so much all in one pass it is important that all the storage tanks, metering systems, airflow fans, delivery hoses and splitters, and soil openers are in working condition and not excessively worn. Worn double-shoot openers effectively become single-shoot openers because, if excessively worn, the separation between the seed-row and the fertilizer band is less defined. The width of these units is commonly 60 ft (18 m). Below is a picture of a unit in operation during spring planting that is capable of planting and applying NH3. The next picture shows a closer view of the unit configured with a separate disc opener that applies NH3 in a band in between every two seed-rows, called mid-row banding.

The technical developments in air-drill technology has improved the planting of seed grain and placement of fertilizers compared to the earlier air-seeders, but with improvement comes the need to adjust and maintain the equipment to make sure it does effectively what it is designed to do. Late winter or early spring is an ideal time to get this equipment ready for the busy planting period.

Conditions across the Southern and Central Great Plains Region are quite variable at this writing. The latest Palmer Drought Severity Index (March 7) shows conditions ranging from severe drought in central Texas to extremely moist in parts of Kansas and Nebraska. Similarly, the condition of the wheat crop is variable. In the southern part of the region (Texas and Oklahoma) the wheat condition is currently mostly in the fair to very poor range, while to the north (Kansas and Nebraska) the wheat crop is in much better condition ranging mostly in the fair to excellent categories. Looking forward, moisture is badly needed for rainfed spring planted crops in the southern half of the region. Fortunately, rain has been in the forecast for some of the driest areas.

There has been a good deal of ups and downs in both crop and fertilizer prices over the past year or so. So much so that in some cases it has caused growers to delay decisions and purchases as long as possible this spring. To address the reluctance and confusion, IPNI has produced several brief articles that are posted on our website at http://www.ipni.net/fertilizer2009. These articles capture several fundamental principles basic to profitable crop production. Among these principles is that of complete and balanced fertility and the fact that “t he yield boost from proper crop nutrition helps spread fixed and variable costs over more harvested bushels, thereby lowering the production cost per bushel.” As many studies have shown, plant nutrients interact to provide benefit beyond those achieved from a single nutrient. Therefore, as we go into another season remember that one of the most important considerations in any crop production system is the provision of complete and balanced fertility. We at IPNI have developed a wealth of information on this subject that is available through our web resources (such as the previously mentioned) and our printed publications.

One of the topics frequently being discussed in the Southeast this spring is the number of acres that will be planted to cotton. As of mid-March, many growers are still undecided whether they will plant cotton or soybean. Most are waiting to see what the grain prices do. Conditions that may lead to more cotton in the Southeast this year are steadily increasing yields, falling grain prices, lower input costs versus a year ago, and good prices for cottonseed. Much of the undecided acreage is coming out of wheat, which was planted on just over 4 million acres in the region, down approximately 35% from 2008. Some areas of the Midsouth may also see some corn acreage go to cotton if weather delays planting too late. The general consensus is that the cotton farmers want to grow cotton.

In recent Delta Farm Press articles, Arkansas growers summed it up by saying: “All of us have forgotten more about growing cotton than we’ll ever know about growing grains” and “Everything on our operation is set up for cotton”. Final decisions will be the ones that make the most economic sense for the farm, but it looks like the numbers might favor more cotton in the South this year.

Fertilizer nutrients play a major role in meeting cotton yield and quality goals of modern agriculture. Better crop and soil management has resulted in higher crop yields. Higher yields, in turn, have increased the need to replace the nutrients removed by the larger crop harvests. How we handle these fertilizer inputs provides the foundation for fertilizer BMPs and positive economic returns from fertilizer. The way fertilizers are managed can have a major impact on the efficiency of nutrient use by crops and potential impact on the surrounding environment. In all instances, we are striving to improve fertilizer use efficiency by increasing the pounds of lint per acre for each unit of nutrient applied, without sacrificing yield potential. Efficient fertilizer management means paying close attention to the “Four Rights” (4Rs) of fertilizer application: Applying the right nutrient source at the right rate, at the right time in the growing season, and in the right place. For information on how this strategy can be used in cotton, check out the IPNI publication Apply the “Four Rights” for Cotton Production in the Midsouth and Southeast. There is a fertilizer BMP chart in the publication that lists several fertilizer management practices along with a description of what would be considered best, what would be considered making progress toward the best, and what would be considered in definite need of improvement. Go through the chart and evaluate the number of practices under which your farm ranks in the first two categories. If a suitable fit in the top two categories is not found, you may want to re-evaluate some current management practices. Ensuring that we have either achieved, or are working toward, fertilizer best management practices is an important measure of production system success and can help sustain the viability of cotton in the region.

Another way to improve the profitability of cotton production in the South is to detect and treat problems early. The classic IPNI publication Be Your Own Cotton Doctor is one worth revisiting. The guide provides tips for identifying nutritional, insect, and disease related disorders. Also check out a new slide set titled Nutrient Deficiencies in Cotton, which provides pictures of many nutritional problems in cotton to go along with the illustrations in the Cotton Doctor publication. The slide set also goes through a process for identifying, diagnosing, treating, and preventing nutrient deficiencies from occurring again.

Farmers are generally an optimistic group of people. Even with concerns about water availability, uncertainty regarding the price of many inputs, lower crop prices this year, and conditions of global economic turbulence, most of the farmers I meet are hopefully optimistic as a new growing season begins. With uncertainty looming over the current growing season, the focus continues to be on getting maximum efficiency from every input and operation.

Fertilizer costs can be one of the most significant expenditures for producing many crops. However, fertilizer costs are one of the expenses that can be thoughtfully managed. When applied properly, fertilizer still provides an excellent return on the investment and makes a vital contribution to overall farm productivity.

Proper crop nutrition remains an essential investment each year. There is no substitute for adequate crop nutrition. Farmers who carefully monitor their soil and plant nutrient status will benefit through increased yields and are more likely to get a favorable return on the overall farming investment. Use every available tool to choose only the fertilizer products that are needed, keep accurate field records to predict the right fertilizer application rate, apply nutrients at the right time to meet crop requirements, and place the valuable fertilizer in the right place to get the maximum benefit.

In both good and bad times, optimism is required to be successful. Farming has always been a difficult and risky business, but what a satisfying job!