Make The Most Of Fertilizer

By Randy Simonson, Ph.D.
Technical Services Manager

Every farmer is trying to cut costs this year.  With low commodity prices, cutting costs is imperative.  How do you cut fertilizer costs while minimizing yield loss?

Nitrogen prices have skyrocketed this year and nitrogen can be a tricky element to recommend.  Weather plays a big part in how much is going to be available or lost.  The TSM program does a good job in estimating the nitrogen need of a crop.  We take many factors into consideration to make it more accurate.  Other ways to fine tune nitrogen recommendations is to use the one-foot soil nitrate sample and then sidedressing what is needed.  Sidedressing is in general a more efficient way of applying nitrogen just because there is less time for loss compared to fall or spring applications.  The soil nitrate test can be used to fine tune nitrogen recommendations, however, each state has a different recommendation with it.  We discussed this at length at the TSM Winter Conferences.

Another question we often have is whether starters are needed.  I really like starters (2 x 2) or germinators (on the seed).  We usually recommend 100 lbs of starter per acre and 5 gal of germinator per acre.  In addition to nitrogen and phosphorus, we like to see some potassium, sulfur and micros in the starter or germinator to make sure the crop has everything it needs to get up and going.  Starters and germinators get the crop off to a good start especially under adverse conditions.  Considering the price of seed and all that a farmer has riding on the crop, it is imperative to give the plants as good a start as possible.  We did a big germinator trial a few years ago at the research farm and saw a 14 bu/acre increase over no germinator.  This was on conventionally tilled corn.  Starters or germinators are even more important for no-till crops.

Many growers have gone to the germinator from starter just because it takes less product, thus fewer fill ups.  One more advantage of the germinator is that it is immediately available to the germinating seed, whereas the seminal roots have to find the starter.

Some growers may be considering taking out the micronutrients from their broadcast fertilizer.  Our research shows that it is better to just go with a lower TSM budget.  That is what the budgets are there for.  Even high amounts of phosphorus and potassium do not take the place of micronutrients.  Lower TSM budgets are yielding better and costing less than other fertilizer recommendations using just phosphorus and potassium.

TSM has been recommending that growers fertilizer every crop.  Most soybeans are not fertilized in a corn/soybean rotation.  Our research has shown that fertilizing every year is beneficial and recently the University of Illinois has shown that fertilizing every crop produces more profit.  This goes along with what I have discussed above.  The closer you can get to spoon feeding the crop the better.  Even some foliar fertilizers have worked very well in our test plots.  TSM-2 is a foliar fertilizer containing both macro and micronutrients.  It has produced yield increases of 4 to 9 bu/acre in corn and soybeans.

Is Veris Better Than Grid Sampling?

By Randy Simonson, Ph.D.
Technical Services Manager

Grid sampling is synonymous with precision farming.  Using smaller grids is considered the means to more intense precision ag.  But is it the best way to take soil samples?  Some growers and ag retailers are mapping by soil types.  The Veris unit produces a map similar to the soil type map in that the Veris will show differences between light and heavy soil.

Helena Chemical at Berne, Indiana and the Helena Information Lab at Bluffton, Indiana have made some correlations comparing grid sampling and sampling using the Veris unit.  In one particular 41-acre field, soil samples were grid sampled at 2.5-acre grids.  Sixteen samples were taken.  The Veris unit was also run across the field.  Then soil samples were taken within three zones produced by the unit.  The three zones respond to more dense, medium and less dense areas.  (See Chart #1 below.)  Although several samples were taken in this case, we combined the results into the three zones.  Thus, only three samples needed to be taken.

Chart 1

The results using both methods were correlated to yield.  (See Chart #2 below.)  For each soil-tested nutrient, the Veris method showed a higher correlation to yield than did soil test values from grid sampling.  And the correlation was always positive with the Veris unit whereas there were some negative correlations using the grid method.

Chart 2
Soybean Yield

The Veris unit produced much better correlations to yield than the grid sampling method and it took 1/5 the soil samples.  However, this is only one field, and the next field may show different results.  It certainly should be studied further on more fields.

TSM_® Road Signs

By Larry Schonert
Account Executive

Perhaps one of the easiest ways to increase interest in the TSM_® Program is by using the TSM_® Road Signs.  Consider the advantages that road signs offer:

1. Advertisement - for both your business and the TSM_® Program.
2. Attention Grabbing - will cause people to come in and inquire about the TSM_® Program.
3. Sales Tool - can increase the interest in getting into the TSM_® Program.
4. Information Source - lets customers know you are the exclusive dealer of the TSM_® Program.
5. Perception - the customer can see how fields in the TSM_® Program are doing compared to non-TSM_® fields.