Fertilizer applications underway to stop nutrient stress
Sponsored editorial from Yara
| Fertilizer applications are well underway now, and anyone still delaying should reconsider the position. The large canopy crops will, and are starting to show signs of nutrient stress. Nutrient stress will indeed reshape the canopy, reducing tiller numbers, but it will also reshape yield potential. Yield comes from grains per ear and ultimately grains/ m2 and anything that reduces this is undesirable. These large canopies need very robust growth regulator programs and extra spend in this area will be money well spent. Nitrogen cores have continued to be taken with very variable results. In general the light, warm soils where mineralization has continued are higher than previous years. On the other hand heavy, cold, wet soils are at levels lower than expectation. The latest results showed 14 of 16 samples at Index 0 with the previous cropping ranging from set-aside, oilseeds and winter beans. With the rain, these heavy soils will not be conducive to mineralization and may have some immobilisation of nitrogen where soils are poorly aerated. The problem this poses is that RB209 recommendations where the field assessment method has been used will only allow for low nitrogen rates. Such recommendations will need careful monitoring to prevent crop requirement not being met. |
