Fertilizing for Crop Removal

 
From early harvest reports, it appears that we are in a garden spot this year. Most local farmers are reporting extremely good yields of corn that has been harvested so far this fall. I realize that there are some fields that are not going to yield as well. We have had a few wind and hail events, along with damp areas from wet spells and burnt-up areas from dry spells, but on average fields are going to yield very well. With these good yields we must remember crop removal rates for our fertilizer applications. Using the Winfield-United slide rule crop removal calculator, a 160 bushel/acre corn crop takes an x-61-43 as an average crop removal. A 200 bushel/acre corn crop removes a X-76-54, and a 240 bushel/acre corn crop removes a x-91-65. As you can see taking a crop of an additional 40 bushel/acre can pull a lot of additional nutrients out of our soil profile.

Not using a full crop removal rate in a fertility program only cheats next year’s crop out of the opportunity to shine as well as this season’s yields are going to. We have the ability to spread your farm with a blanket spread at average crop removal rate, VRT apply a precise crop removal to each acre by using your harvest yield monitor information from your yield monitor, or a more complex VRT spread combining Grid soil samples and information from your combine’s yield monitor. Contact your local SFG agronomist to discuss your fertilizer program for next season to be prepared to have fields spread as they are harvested.