Global Factors, Prices Push Fertilizer Efficiency to the Forefront

Higher input costs have consistently been the No. 1 concern identified by farmers over the past six months, according to February results from the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer survey.

Thirty percent of corn and soybean producers say they’ve had difficulty purchasing crop inputs from their suppliers, according to the survey, with fertilizer ranking behind only herbicides as the most problematic to source. In addition, one-third of corn producers surveyed in February said they plan to use a lower nitrogen application rate this year than in 2021, compared with 37% of corn producers who said they planned to reduce their nitrogen application rate when surveyed in January.

Advertisement

“It’s a complicated story. No doubt fertilizer prices have gone up a lot, and we empathize with farmers,” says Ben Pratt, Senior Vice President, Government and Public Affairs with Mosaic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “puts at risk a huge amount” of the world’s fertilizer and grain production, he notes. Ukraine and Russia combined produce 40% of the world’s potash and 20% of phosphates.

Top Articles
Best Agriculture Apps for 2024 (Update)

Related:

Retail Remedies: Solutions and strategies to help manage market uncertainty in 2022.


“For U.S. farmers, it won’t affect them immediately,” as most fertilizer buying for the spring season has already been committed, nor does he expect to see an increase in price immediately. What people believe will happen and the reality of what is happening with exports and availability do not necessarily line up, he points out. “It’s an uncertain picture right now. It is not clear to anybody how the war will impact Russia and Ukraine’s economies.”

Taylor Purucker, Crop Nutrition Lead with Mosaic, acknowledges the role of global factors but reminds that the core principles behind nutrient management remain consistent.

“If we go back to the basics, we know that up to 60% of crop yield is dependent on soil fertility,” he tells CropLife® magazine. “What this tells me is that if we don’t have a solid crop nutrition foundation, it’s hard to capitalize on other management practices, whether it’s pesticides, seed selection, and so forth. It’s really important to lay a solid foundation of crop nutrition.”

Purucker highlights two key principles to keep in mind heading into the ’22 season: No. 1. The importance of using soil tests and soil test information to help guide fertilizer decisions, and No. 2. Short-term decisions can have long-term outcomes.

“The No. 1 thing I recommend is to have a plan: Know what the yield goal is and use that information to help assess what nutrients need to be added and in what amounts. I always encourage growers and agronomists to assess field history problem areas they may have noted during harvest last year,” he says, “as that might give some indication on where we should focus more on certain nutrients, or on the flip side, maybe a little less on certain nutrients.”

Soil testing is less reliable for nutrients that are more mobile in the soil, such as nitrate, because they can be so variable, but guidelines for such nutrients are available through land grant universities, he notes. For nutrients that don’t leach as readily, like phosphorus, a soil test report is ideal.

“Try to take emotion out of it and stick to things like a soil test report, which helps guide some of those fertilizer decisions, and use research data that helps guide the economic return on fertilizers,” Purucker advises, adding, “It takes years to build soil health. It’s important to look at the long-term productivity of a soil. Sometimes decisions can have consequences that take years to rebuild.”

At Brandt, a major focus is on helping make nitrogen more efficient in the corn and soybean plant. In 325 trials looking at different hybrids conducted by Agronomist Ed Corrigan from 2007 to 2011, researchers were able to reduce nitrogen by 60 units per acre by adding a small amount of potassium.

“We would spend less on nitrogen, and by spending more on potassium, which is a very safe element to the environment, it allowed us to reduce N levels and improve overall yield. It’s rebalancing, and it’s what a lot of the focus has been for the Illinois Nutrient Research & Education Council in the last 10 years – how to reduce N and still get the same yield or better,” Corrigan tells CropLife.

Brandt’s work toward helping growers become more efficient has also centered on utilizing elements like molybdenum, which helps the plant pick up more photosynthesis and assists with nitrogen utilization. “Molybdenum is just critical, and we are putting it our newest foliar compounds that contain boron, or small amounts of potassium,” he adds.

“We’re trying to work within the environment that way by rebalancing and changing application timings,” he says, such as cutting N rates by applying more up front in the spring to prime the soil.

“Instead of one pound of N per bushel of corn, we’re down to about 6/10 of a pound of N per bushel. It’s efficient, but now we are finding out we can make it better by paying attention to smaller nutrient usages like sulphur, molybdenum, and manganese — those things that are not very expensive and are mobile elements in the soil. You have to put them in the crop,” he explains, adding that molybdenum runs just $1 to $2 an acre, while boron costs about $4 to $5 an acre.

Sound Ag’s Unique Approach

One company, Sound Agriculture, an Emeryville, CA-based startup, has a taken a unique approach to nitrogen reduction.

In February, the company launched a nitrogen reduction pilot program to replace up to 700,000 units of nitrogen, or 3.4 million units of CO2, across 25,000 acres of fields throughout the U.S. The program was developed to eliminate the financial risk associated with using less synthetic fertilizer by underwriting the risk of lost yield.

It is another step towards achieving the company’s goal of reducing 30% of global nitrogen fertilizer — the equivalent of removing 200 million cars from the road.

Sound Agriculture’s flagship product, Source, uses patented technology to activate microbes in the soil that unlock existing nutrients through nitrogen fixation and phosphate solubilization. Growers can target a yield increase of 5 to 10 bushels per acre or a nitrogen reduction of 25 to 50 pounds, per acre in corn, depending on how they want to use it.

“Growers are interested in implementing more sustainable practices, but financial risk is a barrier,” said Adam Litle, CEO, Sound Agriculture. “Even with record highs in fertilizer prices, growers are still reluctant to reduce nitrogen at $6 per bushel for corn. Because we’re confident Source can maintain or grow yields even with reduced nitrogen, we’re introducing this program to remove all of the risk. To our knowledge it’s the first time a private company has offered an unlimited yield risk guarantee. We think the results are going to be excellent for growers’ operations, their soil and water quality, and climate change at large.”

Growers who participate in the pilot will work closely with a Sound Agriculture agronomist to develop a nitrogen reduction plan specific to their farm. Using the company’s Performance Optimizer, key soil characteristics and other data points will be used to identify fields where Source in combination with nitrogen reduction will perform best. Growers will save money on fertilizer prices, which have risen threefold over the past year, increase soil microbial activity, reduce nitrogen loss, and in many cases may see an increase in yield, according to the company.

2
Advertisement