By Brian Hefty
For most of my years as an agronomist, farmers have come to me with this question, “How do I cut my expenses this year?” First, it’s not about cutting expenses; it’s about improving your returns on any investment you make. Second, if there is something you want to cut, you probably want to start with your biggest expense, or as I like to call it, your biggest “investment”. On most farms in the world, the number one expense/investment is fertility.
Here’s the problem. If you want to cut that bill, how do you know which part of it to cut? How do you know what should give you a great return on investment? How do you know you’ve been getting the right advice when it comes to fertility?
We have been talking a little about how to read a soil test during our Ag PhD Winter Workshops for years, but this winter we are not going to cover much in terms of soils and fertility at our regular workshops. Instead, we will have two special Soils Clinics where we will talk about this topic in a little more detail. Here is what we intend to cover:
- How to read a soil test from start to finish
- How to make your own fertilizer recommendations
- Which fertilizers you commonly get oversold and which fertilizer products you most commonly need but don’t get
- How to make your own variable rate fertilizer maps in less than 10 minutes
- During each Soils Clinic we will also take up to 10 soil tests from farmers in the audience and talk them through with the group. If you want us to go through one of your soil tests, here’s what you need to do: take grid or zone samples in one field, have those samples tested at Midwest Labs in Omaha (if everyone uses the same lab it will be easier for us to compare samples from one farmer to the next), and e-mail your sample results no later than Feb. 10 to me at brian@agphd.com.
- We will have approximately 20 agronomists at the 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 should have all the information you need so you can 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!
Click each location below for more information and directions.
Friday, February 21, 2014 – Larchwood, IA – Grand Falls (9:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.)
Monday, February 24, 2014 – Fargo, ND – Holiday Inn (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.)
Immediately after each Soils Clinic, Darren and I will be broadcasting our live Ag PhD Radio Show from 2 pm to 3 pm. During that time we will be answering your questions and talking more about soil fertility.