Conditions have been a little cool and wet, but now that it’s mid-April, farmers are itching to start planting. Stephanie Zelinko, sales agronomist for AgroLiquid, says it’s still early, but it’s a good time to make sure you’re ready when the planting window opens.
“We just need to make sure of the basics: equipment is ready, seed is available, crop protection and fertilizer is available,” she says. “From that fertilizer standpoint this year, with the way the market and the industry are going, that’s one of the biggest keys is making sure you have everything you need for planting easily accessible.”
Product delays within the industry are variable, based on location. Zelinko says that AgroLiquid is in a favorable position with product availability.
“AgroLiquid has a complete line of crop nutrition—we have nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, all the micro and secondary nutrients,” she says. “We have dealers across the country, all of our supply on the manufacturing side we have in house, along with what our retailers have across the country is very secure.”
With current fertilizer prices, some growers might be considering applying less product or basing applications off previous soil tests. That might be a good strategy, but Zelinko says growers could run into issues.
“What I suggest to growers is to start with a good program you know that’s going to get your crop by,” she says. “If we have a great growing season or if things change, there’s lots of in-season application options you can look at. You can do foliar applications on both corn and soybeans, look at things like y-drop or a side dress coulter inject application. There’s ways you can add additional crop nutrition later in the season and take advantage of either the supply chain or product availability issues that might be coming up.”
For more information, talk with your local AgroLiquid agronomist.