Harvest is underway, but farmers are already preparing for the 2025 crop with nutrient planning and fertilizer applications.
Country Visions Cooperative, based in Brillion, Wis., is busy applying phosphorus (P) products, potash (K) and nitrogen (N) this fall, following close behind silage choppers and combines. Alex Yost, an agronomist and manager of Country Visions’ Readfield Grain and Agronomy location in Fremont, Wis., says he expects fertilizer applications will continue until snow blankets the ground.
“We weren’t sure about the amount of fertilizer that would go down this fall, given the relatively low commodity prices, but with the dry weather and good yields, it’s been a busy season,” he says.
With tight budgets and another growing season of wild weather swings — a wet spring and early summer and dry late summer and fall – cooperative agronomists are helping growers protect and optimize their crop nutrient investments.
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers can make a difference in return on fertilizer value, say Yost and Matthew Pauli, a technical specialist with CHS. They offer five reasons to add them to a crop nutrient program.
1. Yield boost
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers help increase yields by making nutrients available to crops when needed, Pauli says.
That’s one reason why farmer-owners of Country Visions Cooperative are blending more Trivar® or Trivar® EZ, a new enhanced efficiency fertilizer from CHS, into phosphorus products applied this fall, says Yost. “They are looking to reduce costs and still get a good crop.”
Trivar and Trivar EZ contain the Levesol® chelating agent, patented by CHS, that make P and other key micronutrients more readily available to plants. Trivar is impregnated on dry fertilizer and includes zinc and boron, while Trivar EZ is an easy-to-use granular blend that includes calcium, manganese, sulfur, zinc and molybdenum.
On corn with fall-applied P, 18 replicated field trials in eight states from 2019 to 2022 show a 5-bushel-per-acre advantage when using Trivar.
2. Return on investment
By adding Trivar or Trivar EZ, Yost says many farmers are reducing the amount of phosphorus applied by 10% to 20% per acre. Typical application rates have been 100 to 150 pounds per acre, depending on soil tests, in east-central Wisconsin.
Trivar typically costs $5 to $7 per acre and Trivar EZ costs $10 to $12 per acre, Pauli says.
Yost estimates farmers are saving about $1 per acre by reducing P rates and adding Trivar. “They’re getting the yield benefits and saving money.”
3. Nutrient availability
Not only do nutrients need to be available, but they need to be available during maximum uptake by plants, Pauli says.
“If farmers apply P in the fall, about half to 70% of the nutrient can be tied up and unavailable,” he adds. “Phosphorus is a very active molecule and likes to bind with anything it can. Trivar and Trivar EZ help prevent that.”
Regardless of the form of N applied, the nutrient is susceptible to loss. As soon as urea hits the ground, it is exposed to the risk of volatilization. Liquid fertilizer applied below ground is prone to leaching and denitrification.
Pauli recommends using a nitrogen stabilizer such as the N-Edge® family of products, to help keep valuable nitrogen in place until plants need it. “It provides confidence that what you put out will be available for the crop.”
Whether applying urea or other forms of nitrogen in the fall or spring, including a nitrogen stabilizer guards against loss.
4. Protect nutrient investment
Yost says the dry fall has prompted farmers broadcasting fall urea or spraying UAN32 on winter wheat acres to include N-Edge Pro, which provides above and below-ground protection against N loss. Pauli says N loss due to volatilization can start within days of application if not incorporated by rain or tillage. Adding a stabilizer can delay and reduce losses.
“Normally, we can bank on a rain to incorporate the urea or UAN, which hasn’t been the case this year. At $3 to $5 per acre, N-Edge Pro is a cost-effective way to protect nitrogen investments, Yost says.
Nitrogen stabilization is important when there’s too much rain, too, says Yost. “In the summer, about 80% to 90% of the corn acres we sidedressed with urea included N-Edge Pro. It was raining every other day and farmers needed protection against leaching,” he continues.
5. Environmental stewardship
Caring for the environment is at the heart of the agricultural cooperative system. By not overapplying nutrients and reducing nutrient losses by using enhance efficiency fertilizer products, Pauli says farmers can keep more fertilizer on the field to be used by growing crops.
“Our farmer-owners are very conservation-minded,” says Yost. “Enhanced efficiency fertilizers help to protect the environment.”
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