By Brian Hefty

Odds are, in the last few months you’ve talked about cutting expenses on your farm. If you are truly serious about that, let’s start with your biggest expense: fertilizer! The only problem is, how do you know what to cut and what not to cut? That’s where we can help.
I hate to oversell you on anything, especially when that thing is free, but you will likely learn more about soils in one day at a free Ag PhD Soils Clinic than you did in four years of college. The whole key here is that what we’ll go through all day is directly applicable to you right now. Here are some of the things we’ll cover:

  • We have a lot of new information and more detailed information beyond what we covered at our Soils Clinics last year.
  • How to read a soil test from start to finish.
  • How to make your own fertilizer recommendations.
  • Which fertilizers do you commonly get oversold and which fertilizer products do you most commonly need but don’t get? During the day we will cover every single plant nutrient that you may need to apply, including N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn, and B.
  • How to make your own variable rate fertilizer maps in less than 10 minutes.
  • We will have up to 30 agronomists at each Soils Clinic who can go through your soil tests with you either at our lunch break or after the clinic if you want to make sure you are on the right track when it comes to reading your own info.
  • By the time you leave this clinic you will have a simple strategy to reduce your “costs” on fertilizer and make better fertilizer “investments” going forward. If you are a crop farmer looking to improve yield and profit, whether you already know a lot or a little about soil fertility and soil tests, you won’t want to miss this free clinic!

HERE IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO.

1. Today, please pre-register for a Soils Clinic at www.agphd.com so we have enough food, seats, and books for everyone.

2. Today, please download the free Ag PhD Soil Test App for your smartphone or iPad. Then, go to www.agphdsoiltest.com and set up your farm and fields.

3. If nothing else, at least soil test a couple spots in one field prior to a Soils Clinic. Ideally, it would be great to have lots of your own data to talk to us about at the Soils Clinic, but anything is better than nothing.

4. Attend one of our free Soils Clinics, and arrive 30 to 60 minutes early. We will have you pull some actual soil samples, and we can answer some of your questions about our Soil Test app or soil test results before the Clinic even starts.

Last year we hosted just 2 Soils Clinics. We have never had such positive response from anything we’ve ever done, so we’re having more Soils Clinics, and we’ll have even more info than we did last year. It will be a fun day, so don’t miss the Clinic near you!

Thursday, January 29, 2015 – Watertown, SD – Convention Center (9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, February 3, 2015 – Grand Forks, ND – Alerus Center (9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, February 10, 2015 – West Point, NE – Nielsen Center (9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 – Spokane, WA – Northern Quest (11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 – Morton, MN – Jackpot Junction (9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Thursday, February 19, 2015 – Sikeston, MO – Miner Convention Center (9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Tuesday, February 24, 2015 – Twin Falls, ID – Canyon Crest (9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.)