Posted on October, 30, 2024 at 05:16 pm
Fertilizer costs are weighing on many farmers this fall, as they wrap up the 2024 harvest and look forward to next season. Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist, says one of the most important decisions you can make now is to keep your wits about you in the process.
“Don’t get caught up in a fire sale mentality,” he encourages. “Emotional decisions based on what you hear at the coffee shop or read on social media rarely pay in positive outcomes. Instead, take a more controlled, calibrated approach to reducing fertilizer costs.”
Here are nine additional thoughts from Ferrie on how to approach your corn and soybean fertility program for 2025:
1. Figure out what you currently spend on fertilizer. With the facts in hand, you’ll be able to make decisions based on reality and not feelings.
2. Determine the target dollar amount that you want to get to for next year, what will make your cash flow work.
“Your agronomist can help you through this process, but they need real numbers to work with – not just emotions,” Ferrie says. “There’s a big difference between taking $20 per acre out of your program or trying to reduce it $120.”
3. Once you have the target dollar amount in mind, refer to your soil test information.
“Let your soil tests do the talking,” Ferrie says. “They will tell you if you can cut fertilizer costs in a field by 10%, 20% or even 50% without dinging yields short-term. The opposite is true, too.”
4. Keep your rotation in mind as you prepare to trim. For instance, Ferrie says when farmers are building fertilizer levels in lower testing areas, most do that ahead of soybeans.
“So, if you say, ‘I’m just going to cut out all my bean spreads,’ you’re going to be cutting the lowest fertility in the field,” he says. “It usually works better to scale back your corn fertility program for most fields.”
5. Remember that applying less fertilizer than the removal rates will lower soil fertility in the field, and that will need to be reckoned with when profitability finally stabilizes.
“The good news is that most of your farms are in a good place where you can lean them out without damaging yields short-term. That’s the power of knowing your fertility levels,” Ferrie says.
6. However, if you’re dealing with a new farm or one with poor fertility, it’s a tough climb to pull back on fertility in either of those scenarios without adjusting your yield goals. If this is your situation, be sure to check soil pH levels.
“This is where to start. Don’t be too quick to pull lime out of the program,” Ferrie advises. “Adequate lime is important in making all your nutrients work at optimum levels.”
7. Consider where you might be able to trim costs without taking as much money out of your fertility program. Maybe you reduce tillage passes or your seed spend. In addition, there might be some fields where you pull back on fertility and others that you leave alone.
8. Don’t wait until the last minute to start the process. What you end up doing will involve a series of important decisions, and that requires time.
9. Tap into your valued experts who know you and know your fields. They can provide good counsel and partner with you in the process.
You can listen to Ken Ferrie’s full recommendations on how to go about reducing fertility costs as well as his take on how harvest in central Illinois is progressing here:
Source: AG WEB