By Brian Hefty
Nutrient stratification could be killing your yields!
For years we’ve been talking about how many nutrients are in the top couple of inches on most farms. This causes several problems, including:
- Your crop roots can’t access all the nutrients that are at the top of the soil, since a vast majority of the roots will be below that level
- When weather conditions dry, the top couple inches of soil dry out first. Without moisture, nutrients have almost no way to get into your crop’s roots.
- When water or wind erosion occurs, it takes the top of your soil first. If that soil has the majority of your nutrients, guess how productive the ground is that’s left?
- Without deep soil fertility, what will lead your roots down? Roots don’t know where fertilizer is in the soil, but when roots hit a high fertility area they will proliferate. Wouldn’t you rather have lots of deep roots than lots of shallow roots? The more deep roots you have the fewer lodging issues you’ll see and the more drought-proof you will make your crop.
- Yield. Without deeper fertility and deep roots, there is almost no chance to maximize yield on a consistent basis.
At this year’s Ag PhD Winter Workshops, we’ll talk more about nutrient stratification and how to PROPERLY manage this issue without lots of negative consequences. In the meantime, look at the chart below that reveals this issue in graphic detail in no-till vs. strip-till vs. conventional-till based on 1” phosphorus soil tests done on and near our farm.
