4 Fertility Tips For High-yield Crops

By: Gil Gullickson

If there’s any spring that farmers would like to forget, it’s 2019. Rampant rainfall in many areas made field operations downright miserable and, in some cases, impossible. So what now? Once harvest is done, 2020 beckons. To raise bumper-corn yields, farmers need a sound fertility strategy. Following are four fertility factors to keep in mind for 2020.

1. THINK MAXIMUM ECONOMIC YIELD.
Granted, no farmers want to be caught short of nitrogen (N) for their corn crop. Yet, farmers may not need as much N on corn as they think.

Fabian Fernandez, University of Minnesota (U of M) Extension soil fertility specialist, points to a 2016 U of M corn fertility test near Wells in south-central Minnesota.

“Like 2016, this was also a year with high spring precipitation,” says Fernandez. “Yield constantly increased until we hit 127 pounds of N applied.

After that, though, the 187-bushel-per acre corn yield achieved at 127 pounds of N flatlined.

“When we say apply the optimum, we are talking about economic optimum,” says Fernandez. “Those last few bushels of yield you produce typically above that level cost more than they’re worth.”