Stabilize Spring Nitrogen

We just had a week of the coldest temperatures of the year and I think I can speak for everyone that we are ready to look ahead to the spring. As we push closer to getting back in the field I wanted to take a little time today to discuss stabilizers for spring nitrogen. Whether its UAN, Urea, or NH3 all nitrogen is susceptible to loss if we get caught in unfavorable conditions. Here at SFG all of our urea comes treated with NueCharge-G to protect it from the three forms of loss. This is something we made a change to a few years ago and have stayed with that program. Most of our NH3 in the fall gets stabilized and a growing portion of that is getting a spring stabilizer as well as on farm trials and inclement weather has told us that this is the best thing to do to protect out investment. N-Serve has long been the standard for stabilizing Nh3 and to this day it is still one of the best products on the market. I wanted to talk about UAN last because I feel this nitrogen source is often forgotten when it comes to stabilizers especially when it comes to that “weed and feed” application. Mixing UAN with our pre-emerge chemical pass is very good way to get extra N out on a field and increase the activity of our herbicides. One downfall to surface applying UAN though is that it is open to volatilization the same as Urea is if it is on the surface. The addition of a stabilizer to this pass is cheap insurance that the nitrogen that we apply will be there when our crops need it most. If you have questions about stabilizers or would like to add one to your spring fertility plans contact your local SFG agronomist.