It’s been nearly a decade since the fertilizer industry received this much attention. The way it appears now, it’s not going to slow down any time soon. Galynn Beer, senior sales manager with AgroLiquid, says soil testing will be your best friend this fall.
“Getting an inventory of nutrients in the soil is going to be priority number one this year so you can make good, intelligent decisions of what to priorities for your fertilizer dollars,” he says.
He’s also encouraging growers to critically think about management habits.
“Where you might front load your nutrients in typical years, the supply chain may not be there to allow for that this year,” says Beer. “You may want to think, ‘I get half my nitrogen down upfront, how would I deal with the other half?’ Maybe that’s side dress, maybe it’s Y-drop or something like that.”
With corn futures nearing $6 and soybeans firmly at $12.50 a bushel, the stakes are high. Beer says farmers will need to have surgical precision when applying fertilizers.
“We don’t want them to skimp, but we want them to think about how to get the most our of that fertilizer dollar,” he says. “Know what that nitrogen put is going to be. You don’t have the luxury of that extra 40 or 50 pounds this year because that might be the difference between profitability and not.”
AgroLiquid does have some products in its portfolio that can help with supplementing nutrients like potassium. For more information, talk with your local rep or visit their website.
