As we find ourselves planning for the upcoming growing year, there are many different events to take part in.

Trade shows, grower meetings, retail calls, sales rep calls, and the infamous coffee shop discussions are all a wealth of information to help make decisions for your farm in the upcoming year.

As a farmer, you will find there are many products on the market that all promise to boost yield and promote plant health.  This of course is followed by many ideas and opinions from various sales people and even neighbors on what works and what is a waste of time and money.

My recommendation when educating yourself on the vast amount of fertilizer product is, before you buy something, find out if you actually need that product, or if using a product will benefit you.  What I mean by this is before you spend dollars of fertilizer be prepared to do soil samples and find out what the soil is actually calling for.  By having an understanding of what your soil requires to benefit the crop you are planting.  As an example, micronutrients are can have a great fit in boosting yield and plant health.  So before you spend dollars on these products find out which nutrient the soil is calling for and at what amounts.

That all sounds almost too simple, but really will help make decisions if first you need certain micros and also the best way to deliver these nutrients to the plant. I would also add that a subsequent follow up tissue test is very beneficial as a “report card” in season to see what nutrients are doing in your plant and again help make decisions on correcting deficiencies.

Another note on why soil and tissue samples are important in making nutrient decisions is these sample will help you understand why or why not something worked.  Rather than taking the approach of well, the neighbor is using this or the sales guy said it is a good idea.

I have a challenge to the first 10 farmers that call me Chad 306-570-9317 and quote my blog.  I will give them a $50 gift card to a retail store of choice

These are simple inexpensive test that will help make the most out of fertilizer planning and boost productive discussions with your sales reps.