An agronomist says higher input prices mean farmers need to take more steps to mitigate risk. Tim Laatsch is the technical agronomy manager for Koch Agronomic Services. “In this crop year, nitrogen is simply too valuable to lose,” he says.
Laatsch says farmers can’t control the price of fertilizer or the weather, there are some variables they can control. “Following the 4R framework, selecting high-efficiency nutrient sources, stabilizing nitrogen against losses,” he says. “It also means placing nutrients where the plants are more likely to find them and timing those applications when the crop needs it most.”
He tells Brownfield for farmers who haven’t applied nitrogen yet… “More untreated nitrogen is simply the wrong economic answer and the wrong environmental answer,” he says. “We really need to focus on protecting every pound of nitrogen we’re putting out there.”
Laatsch says if farmers are applying urea or UAN, to the soil surface of shallow incorporated, the main risk is volatilization loss.
