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Coping With High Fertilizer Prices
By
Laura Skillman
PRINCETON, Ky., (Nov. 14, 2007) – Soaring fertilizer prices may
have farmers considering using less on their crops. However, the
best option is for farmers to determine what amount they really
need and apply the fertilizer when it will provide the optimum
benefit, says a University of Kentucky College of Agriculture
soils specialist.
“Prices are very, very high for phosphorus, potassium and
nitrogen,” said Lloyd Murdock, UK extension soils specialist.
“Demand is up from all over the world. We’ve been used to cheap
fertilizer for decades and haven’t had to worry much about
efficiency. Now we have to think about efficient use of
fertilizer more than we ever had.”
Murdock said he expects farmers to make more judicious use of
their fertilize dollars and his big concern is that they may
quit using it. Instead what they need to do is take soil samples
every year or two rather than every three years.
This gives the farmer a good record of his fields and allows
them to make fertilizer decisions using this history, he said.
They must not be afraid to use these records to help them use
fertilizer efficiently. Many have used the theory, “more is
better,” and are afraid if they reduce their usage to the
amounts recommended by their soil tests they may not be able to
sustain their 200-bushel per acre corn crop.
“That’s something they have to overcome,” Murdock said. “I tell
them I use these recommendations, and I get 200 bushels of corn
too on a good year. We have had a lot of good crops in a row so
we are removing higher amounts of phosphorus and potassium, but
most of these fields really only need maintenance levels of
these fertilizers. Many people like to put on maintenance plus
and that’s one thing we’ve got to get them to understand that it
is not necessary.”
Nitrogen, used heavily in corn production, has increased in
price over the past several years because of foreign imports,
prices of natural gas and other factors. Nitrogen fertilizer is
used more than any other fertilizer, Murdock said. It is
especially important for producers to understand their crops
fertility needs and meet them.
Using UK recommendations available in publication AGR 1, he said
he gets as good a crop as farmers do when they use higher than
recommended rates of nitrogen. Murdock said he feels very
comfortable with these recommendations that have been tested and
tweaked through the years. The recommendations have a range from
high to low which varies based on factors such as soil drainage
and tillage methods.
“If the fertilizer cost is high and the commodity price is low,
then you’d probably want to stay toward the lower level of the
range,” he said. “But right now commodity prices and nitrogen
prices are both high, so you’d want to stay toward the medium to
high part of the range. These recommendations are very good and
are an efficient use of fertilizers. There are also
recommendations for side dressing corn that can also reduce
nitrogen usage.”
In addition, there are a few products on the market that help
reduce nitrogen loss from volatilization when using urea as the
nitrogen source including Agrotain, an urease inhibitor, and ESN,
a polymer-coated slow release urea. It is important to
understand how these products work in order to get the best
results, Murdock said. Information on inhibitors and slow
release urea is available through UK’s publication AGR 185 at
local extension offices.
“I think we are in a transition period from a more liberal use
of fertilizer to farmers taking a more conservative, efficient
use,” he said. “This year I think we will see some people
overspend while others will take a more conservative approach.”
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Contact: Lloyd Murdock, 270-365-7541, ext. 207
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