Myths and misconceptions can cost grain growers

Grain farmers like to stick with successful formulas when it comes to fertilizer application, but the director of agronomy for one company says producers can find ways to be efficient by not always following conventional thinking.

Tim Laatsch is the director of North American agronomy for Koch Agronomic Services, based in Wichita, Kansas. Laatsch leads a team of five agronomists covering the United States and Canada. His team manages a portfolio of third-party trials with universities and various contract research organizations to generate quality data for KAS products. Then they use that data as a marketing asset to take to the field to help customers become comfortable with different KAS technologies.

Fall ammonia application was in full swing in September and growers may mistakenly have fallen for one farming myth and try to choose operational risks over managing agronomic loss risk. The result is applying ammonia application early, which is a big risk in the fall.

Laatsch warns that nitrogen loss can still occur if applied too early. He advocates the use of a nitrification inhibitor for anhydrous ammonia and UAN. KAS offers CENTURO nitrogen stabilizer, which he says is an effective product to fend off denitrification and leaching that can hurt yield. Growers should wait to apply until soil temperature consistently falls below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

“That is one best management practice that we would advocate,” Laatsch said.

One practice is not enough as he believes that complementing the two practices with application of CENTURO and 50-degree Fahrenheit soil temperature is the most effective approach.If planting wheat when the soil temperature is likely to be above 50 degrees Fahrenheit those growers definitely need to have applied a nitrification inhibitor when the anhydrous is being put on. Laatsch termed it a non-negotiable practice.

The reason is that the bacterial conversion of ammonium to nitrate, the process known as nitrification, occurs at a much higher rate when temperatures are higher.

“If it happens in the fall before the temperatures cool off, you can really put yourself at a significant nitrogen loss risk,” he said. “We rely on the natural cooling of the soil to help, but if we can put a technology into play like a nitrification inhibitor, we are going to be much more effective at slowing down that process of nitrification because we inhibit the bacteria so we inhibit their activity.”

The result of using CENTURO is holding the nitrogen in the ammonium form up to three times longer in the soil in comparison to an untreated source and extending protection against nitrification. Once the wheat crop is established, the plants will actively take in the nitrogen and capitalize on it in the spring when the crop comes out of dormancy.

Cost considerations

Growers have expressed concerns that nitrogen costs have risen in recent growing seasons.

“Stabilizing nitrogen is a smart decision for growers,” he said. “Stabilizers are an effective tool to manage the risk of nitrogen loss and capitalize on their nitrogen investment. Especially now with nitrogen costs, it’s important to protect your investment. KAS agronomists recommend the use of a nitrogen stabilizer to enable farmers to apply nitrogen at the right rate and protect their yield potential.”

Besides higher inefficiency, which drives up costs, over application of nitrogen does not honor stewardship obligations with potential unintended losses to the environment. KAS agronomists would not advocate the application of more untreated nitrogen to make up for nitrogen losses.

“Apply the right rate of nitrogen based on the crop’s needs and then stabilize that nitrogen against loss to protect the downside risk is a proven formula. You will almost always optimize yield in that case,” he said.

Laatsch is a farmer himself in southern Illinois, about an hour and a half’s drive east of St. Louis. He took over his family’s operation five years ago and it gives him an opportunity to use KAS products and evaluate them. He understands growers’ economics because he purchases his KAS inputs at retail price. Laatsch is intimately familiar with the challenges his fellow producers face. His dryland operation needs timely rains and fertilizer applications to raise profitable crops.

Challenges

“In southern Illinois, where soft red winter wheat is grown, fall anhydrous application is not possible,” he said. “Ammoniated phosphates are applied in the fall to push some nitrogen into the crop.”

Then in the spring, producers should evaluate the condition of the crop, noting the plant population in order to decide whether to do a split application of nitrogen to promote tillering and to drive yield and protein. During the spring nitrogen application period, growers have to be concerned with volatilization losses and it is another reason an inhibitor can help.

Some growers think they don’t need to worry about protecting early spring or late winter nitrogen applications because cold temperatures will stop or slow volatilization losses. Laatsch said it is a myth. Volatilization may be lower, but it does not stop.

“We have studies that pretty clearly demonstrate losses even as high as 40% of soil applied nitrogen over a period of several weeks if we don’t receive and incorporate rainfall on those winter wheat applications,” he said.

If a grower cannot incorporate any surface application of urea or UAN easily, Laatsch advises using a urease inhibitor. Evaluation of the crop is critical, he said. If the wheat shows good tillers, a grower may be able to split the rate and timing of nitrogen application or go with a single application later in the spring.

“It is very crop condition dependent,” Laatsch said.

Drought’s bite

The impact of drought and heat also has to be taken into account as the grower looks ahead to future crops. If a grower had applied the full rate of nitrogen, he can often leave a high level of residual nitrogen in the soil profile at harvest time.

That nitrogen level is susceptible to being lost as a nutrient if the weather pattern shifts to a wet cycle. If a grower is in corn and soybean rotation, he may want to consider an inhibitor to prevent the loss of the residual nitrogen.

Soil tests

Preserving nitrogen heading into the spring growing season is an investment, he said. Growers should consider a soil test to get a reading on the level of residual nitrogen in the profile early in the season.

He knows some advocates believe that a grower can have enough data to make tailor-made decisions on the rate of nitrogen application, but many models struggle with uncertain weather conditions and other factors. In-season tools can help the producer, he said, but their best use might be on how to apply stabilizer as the technology continues to improve.

On his farm, for example, Laatsch applies his early season side-dressed UAN with CENTURO because in recent years he experienced wet and cold conditions early in the growing season and the stabilizer helped optimize corn yields.

“The problem is we never know what the weather will do after we apply our UAN,” Laatsch said.

Micronutrients

Some growers believe that micronutrients are not as important to optimizing crop production. But Laatsch said that is another myth. Common micronutrients include zinc, boron, iron, calcium, copper, magnesium and manganese. For a balanced approach, KAS’s nutrient management solution, WOLF TRAX micronutrients, evenly coats every dry granule of fertilizer in the load and provides a better distribution in the field compared to granular micronutrients. This helps with plant and root health.

“These wider row spacings, especially for early season crops, have a lot of difficulty accessing nutrients because their root systems don’t explore the entire soil volume,” he said. “In more dense crop, like wheat, we have a lot more root mass spread out evenly over the soil to go capture some of those things.”

Another product that can help overcome early season transient micronutrient deficiencies is PROTIVATE nutritional seed enhancer, which helps young crops to gain optimal crop establishment by putting nutrients directly on the seed for easier access by the root system.

He also gave credit to seed breeders and genetics to bring more resiliency to the crops and allows for greater opportunity for growers to have success and complementing treatments.

Dave Bergmeier can be reached at 620-227-1822 or [email protected].