Agronomic Thoughts

The 2022 crop season ended poorly with extreme heat and dry weather after July 4. In late October most of the PrarieLand territory had beneficial rains to help with wheat emergence. There are still a few spotty stands, but this rain made a huge difference. We have continued to get more small rains to help build the profile for the 2023 crops. It looks like the La Niña may be easing as we head toward spring into a neutral condition.

One thing to keep in mind when you are fertilizing for your 2023 crop is what kind of a crop did you remove last year. If you had a failed crop and you didn’t remove any of it, the P and K fertilizer that you applied last year should be there for the next crop. If you removed a small yielding grain crop, very little was removed. However, the one that really needs to be addressed is if you baled or chopped the crop for silage. When you remove all the residue, you are removing a significant amount of nutrients. There are many apps and online calculators available to help you understand how much fertilizer has been removed from a field. In a recent article that I read, Greg McClure, Kansas State University Research and Extension stated, “If we baled that 2 tons of residue and moved it off the field, we would be removing about $85 worth of nutrients per acre from the field”. This was in reference to a 100-bushel corn crop that would leave 4000 lbs. of residue. With a quick look at a removal calculator, it could be argued that a soybean crop that had 30 bushel and was baled removed about $75 worth of fertilizer.

Fertilizer prices have stabilized to some extent but are still relatively high. It is still a good time to have a grid sample so that you have a game plan for your fertilizer needs. Between knowing what you are removing from fields, be it grain or stover, and what you have in the soil, this gives you the knowledge that you need to make an educated decision for your fertilizer needs. 

It has been a good fall for tillage and lime applications. I have seen quite a bit of lime applied in the last year since it is one of the most cost-effective things a person can do with current fertilizer prices.

JD Operations Center has become a very good tool to use to keep track of many of your agronomic needs. First things that come to mind are yield and planting data. Fertilizer and chemicals will flow into the Operation Center if being applied with John Deere equipment as well as others that can be loaded through the data manager. These layers can be loaded with the app as well. Some people don’t think about capturing there tillage operations, but it is a good way to keep track of how many times you go across the field and knowing what all of your costs are.

Please reach out to any of your PrairieLand Partners employees if there is something we can help you with.

Rob Meyer, Agronomic Specialist, CCA