Crop Week - Fertility Management is Important

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Garth Donald – Dynagra VRT – Fertility Management from RealAgriculture.com on Vimeo.

It is no secret that fertilizer is a hot topic for North American farmers this winter. With the volatility of fertilizer over the past 12 months and the increased speculation towards where the price is going, it seems that farmers and retailers have fertilizer on their mind 24/7.

Fertility management is key is in managing your input costs and getting the ideal yield. I firmly believe that the days are gone when you can afford to not soil test or apply the same rates of fertilizer because that is what your dad did. The science of fertilizer is becoming more complicated as agronomists get more research as to how the different elements in the soil react to one another at different rates. I find that there are many old wives tales in regards to fertilizer do’s and don’ts. This is one of the reasons that the agronomy consultant industry has ballooned in the past five years as farmers try to gain every advantage they can. I encourage you to challenge your fertilizer retailer or agronomist with questions regarding their recommendations to make sure that you understand why they are recommending certain application rates. You need to spend as much time on figuring out the proper application rates as you have spent this winter on getting the best price you could.

With the combination of GPS, mathematics and improved user interfaces’, variable rate technology is gaining more attention from Canadian farmers all the time. This is mainly due to higher fertilizer prices over the past two years and improved seeding system user interfaces.

Variable Rate application does provide you with the opportunity to manage your application of fertilizer more effectively. For more information on Dynagra VRT click on the link.

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