Is Your Post-harvest Crop Nutrition Plan Ready?

By: Industry Voice by The Mosaic Company

As we focus on soil fertility fundamentals, higher yields equate to higher nutrient removal. Harvesting a crop removes nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and other macro- and micronutrients from the field, which require replenishment to maintain soil productivity for subsequent cropping seasons.

The December 2016 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from the USDA indicated a 15.2-billion-bushel corn crop and a 175.3-bushel-per-acre average for 2016. That equated to an estimated 61 pounds of phosphate (P2O5) removed from every acre. The same report indicated a soybean harvest of 4.36 billion bushels, averaging 52.5 bushels/acre, which would remove 63 pounds/acre of potassium oxide (K2O) from U.S. soils.

Unfortunately, regardless of how much a crop is worth per bushel, it’s still pulling just as many nutrients from the ground. For some, this will be yet another year of very difficult decisions related to input costs. Those who have cut back on fertilizer costs may find themselves in a situation that’s very hard to rebound from if they don’t adjust their plans to address the effects of high yields.

One way to shift your focus toward fertilizer fundamentals is by creating a crop nutrition plan for your operation. A major component of that includes soil testing. A soil test provides a starting point for your field that becomes the baseline for developing a well-thought-out plan.

After setting your crop nutrition plan into play, remember to continue to monitor crop growth and development on every acre, every field and every year. Evaluating your field throughout the year is a good way to learn more about your soil’s fertility levels and often will help solve nutrient deficiency concerns. You can monitor the nutrient status of your crop by tissue testing.

Proactive testing may allow those needs to be addressed in-season, or at the very least, will prove valuable as you review your crop nutrition plan for subsequent growing seasons. Using the crop to tell you if it is short on nutrients is a great way to evaluate the effectiveness of your crop nutrition plan. View a crop nutrition plan as a living document which should be reviewed annually based on in-season tissue test, soil test, and yield information to maximize return on fertilizer investments.