Is there really a way to reduce the loss of nitrogen in your fields? University research says there is and it will be an important consideration in 2013 even with residual nitrate levels expected to be high coming off the drought. The reason is the availability of that nitrogen could vary quite a bit.
Tim Book at SFP says on average up to half of nitrogen can be lost, “depending upon what Mother Nature throws at the grower. We just never know what that’s going to be so for a few dollars of investment you can actually stabilize and protect that nitrogen and know that it’s going to be there when the plant needs it, when the plant wants it vs. guessing.”
SFP offers NutriSphere-N® Nitrogen Fertilizer Manager to protect against the three forms of nitrogen loss: volatilization, leaching and denitrification. Book says it’s better to protect early than when signs of loss appear.
“Once you see nitrogen deficiency in your wheat or in your corn, you’ve already lost yield. While you can go in and make some rescue treatments or applications it is a management practice that’s going forward. Let’s protect the nitrogen that we’re applying to the field so that it’s there when the crop actually needs it, and hopefully we can avoid those nitrogen deficient symptoms in the field because we know that’s lost yield.”
For a farmer wanting more phosphorous fertilizer to get to the crop root systems, SFP has Avail.
“Seventy-five to ninety percent of the phosphate that gets applied to a field is going to get tied up in the soil, and our product prevents that tie up or lock up from occurring, thus making that phosphorous available to the corn plant, giving it a much more aggressive, more robust root system.”
With better soil health, better roots and better overall plant health growers get the ultimate benefit of an increase in yields.