Farming Video | Nutrient Balance: Why Your Fertility Program Might Be Wasting Money

00:00:00 Alright, we're talking about the importance of nutrient balance. You gotta realize that right now in this tight 00:00:04 economic situation, we're out in farming. Every, every ounce of fertility that you use has a dollar cost associated with it. 00:00:12 You know that intrinsically, you know that. But it matters more in this economic environment than it ever has. 00:00:17 One of the things that Tommy Roach down here at Nature's gonna cover is about 00:00:22 how you can treat the plant versus flinging fertility at the soil and how you can get big results. 00:00:28 Tommy's gonna be joined by Kelly Garrett, Iowa Farmer, Chad Henderson, Alabama Farmer, Kevin Matthews, North Carolina farmer. 00:00:35 If you're at this morning's, uh, at your, the forum this morning session, you might remember, that's North Carolina, not South Carolina. 00:00:42 So I want to go with Kelly to lead things off. Nutrient balance is one of your big things. You've talked about this a long time. 00:00:50 And so I wanna kick off with Kelly about, and we're not talking about nutrient nitrogen and phosphorus and the big NP 00:00:56 and K, we're talking about the entirety and how they work together. Each one of these guys has battled a nutrient imbalance. 00:01:02 Tom and I talked about in our preparation, calcium, magnesium imbalances that you've had to work to correct. And it might take a decade or two decades 00:01:10 or your lifetime in farming to correct the soil. So what we're doing is immediate steps you can take to remediate and fix the balance 00:01:17 to affect the crop this year. 'cause soil takes a long time. Go On my farm, we started playing around with SAP sample 00:01:27 and the analysis of it in 21, we started to use it in mass in 22. And you know, there's a lot of talk in agriculture about an 00:01:34 over application of nitrogen. Uh, that's a little bit of an incomplete statement to me. The plant wants to take nitrogen 00:01:41 and it wants to use the micronutrients to cause an enzymatic reaction to turn the nitrogen into protein and amino acids. 00:01:47 It's very simple. If enough micronutrients are not present, that nitrogen doesn't get converted 00:01:52 and it builds up in the plant. And so then there that is then by definition there is your over application. 00:01:58 So we use the SAP analysis to make sure we're converting or assimilating all of that nitrogen. 00:02:04 And my soil produces enough nitrogen as Iowa soil that I continue to lower my nitrogen and I continue to raise my micronutrients. 00:02:12 I, my goal is to assimilate or use 95% of the nitrogen that I can measure in the plant. If I do that, my crop is reaching potential. 00:02:20 I'm getting the nice yields, things like that, the plant's healthier. And in my opinion, especially in this economic time, 00:02:26 I'm not wasting a nickel. I'm putting on the minimum amount of fertilizer. I'm, and I'm using all of it. 00:02:32 So then if the crop is reaching potential, then we have the best yield that we can on that said field. That's my whole goal. 00:02:38 Tommy, in our preparation call, you and I talked about the fact that if you want to change the mineral balance, 00:02:44 the nutrient balance in your soil, that's a long term project. And again, you, you want to do it as a farmer, 00:02:51 you wanna leave the land better than you left it, uh, than you got it. But the point here is the plant this year, I, 00:02:58 I don't got got time to wait until my soil is right. That could be a decade down the road. I gotta fix things right now for the maximum yield. 00:03:04 So speak to that. When you think about, when you're talking about nutrient balance, it's for this year's crop. 00:03:10 So everybody has their own issues. Chad has issue with Honda and, uh, NASA and everybody else moving into his geography. 00:03:20 Amazon, yes you have. Do you not have a microphone? Okay. And, and Kevin's got his own set of issues. But one thing that we've been doing this panel 00:03:33 for four years now, and we've talked a lot about, I I've been called labeled Mr. Acetate by some people on the panel. 00:03:44 And we've talked about potassium. That's not gonna change. But one thing that we need to focus on, yes. Bio. 00:03:51 Okay, sorry. You're correct. Bio. Okay, bio Okay. Is right there behind you. So one thing that has changed is, Damien talked about fixing the soil 00:04:03 and how do people fix the soil? We don't fix the soil, we feed the plant, but a lot of people try to fix it with gip, with lime, 00:04:14 with copious amounts of sulfur, which are all good. But what do you do in the interim until you get that soil fixed? 00:04:23 You still have calcium issues, you still have magnesium issues, you still have potassium issues. 00:04:30 And we now can deal with all three because of, you can walk up and down the, down the aisle here, there's all sorts 00:04:39 of precision placement equipment. We now have Mr acetate, calcium acetate, magnesium acetate that we can't actually 00:04:49 fix soil at the same time we are balancing out plant nutrition. So, and we will get into that as we go. 00:04:58 Alright, so you specifically named these three farmers as having a MAA balance problem and it was calcium and magnesium in general, right? Correct. 00:05:06 So who everybody does, and Every var, every farmer here, everybody in this, everybody at this commodity classic has an imbalance issue. 00:05:12 They've got something they're battling. So I guess what I want to hear is, which one of these guys you wanna go to first about 00:05:17 how you addressed it with them with a prescriptive plan to get the balance, realizing the soil's a longer term thing to the plant. 00:05:25 So whichever one of these three you wanna go to and describe the prescriptive work you did to get a balance. Chad go. So, so this is, I'm from Alabama 00:05:36 and our soils are, well, are dirt. I don't think I have soil. I think I have dirt. So anyway, we have, we're a, um, two 00:05:44 to three organic matter. We're seven nine cc, but our base saturation of mag is in the toilet. Uh, we're half of what we need to be. In other words. 00:05:54 So we got that. Yeah. So, so, so other people have the other half, you know, some people are high, some people are low. 00:06:00 Um, but what we're going to do to fix that is we can always come up, we've always been on K mag for years with dry fertilizer, 00:06:06 but we're still addressing the K factor. Well, the K and the mag is the problem. They're, they are antagonized to each other. 00:06:13 So as I keep trying to raise the mag, I'm still raising the K, right? So I don't need any more k per se, you know, 00:06:22 'cause I'm six or seven On, we can feed the K during the season, We can feed the K, but we can't get ahold of the mag. 00:06:28 So Tommy and them come up with this mag acetate and this calcium acetate to where we can address these issues. 00:06:33 So we're gonna put a half a gallon to a gallon, either in a ditch in the tub or two other places where we can address the plant instead 00:06:41 of addressing the soil, because I can't fix it in my soil. I've been trying 20 years. 00:06:47 Kevin, you've got a different issue. Yeah. So we're very high mag and we're needing the calcium, 00:06:53 and we have been able to change certain farms. It's about a 10 to 11 year process, and you really need irrigation 00:07:00 so you can grow massive crops on it to build that root mass, build organic matter, and a lot of poultry litter 00:07:06 and a lot of gyps in to try to get it there and using the correct lime source. But however, during that process is when we got working, 00:07:13 Chad, all of us with the foliar learning more and more. But it is, it's more to it than just using a foliar. If you've got a mag issue or a calcium issue 00:07:23 and you're putting some in for a foliar or whatnot. But you gotta understand the demand is like this chart over here on this uptake 00:07:29 and participant, you gotta understand when that plant needs these products. And if you're just going to go out and make one application 00:07:38 and you think you're gonna put it out there and you're not putting it at the right time, more than likely you're wasting money. 00:07:43 You really need to, to put that nutrient at these low rates just before that plant needs it for 00:07:51 that active growth period. And for me, I'm all about bushels. So that's what I sell as bushels, 00:07:58 and I'm looking at that reproductive side. I can't do but so much on the, um, vegetation side to build it up because our soils can't handle it. 00:08:06 And then the least limiting factor is what stops us, right? So one thing that I don't know if whoever went 00:08:12 to the panel this morning, we talked about nutrient uptake charts here. Here's the, here's the roadmap that everybody ought 00:08:21 to be following because we all, we all eat breakfast, lunch, supper, some eat more than others. 00:08:28 Kelly eats more than than me. So we don't just eat breakfast and then expect it to carry us through the whole day. 00:08:39 Why, why do a lot of people put out copious amounts of NPK and maybe some other stuff? Think, take thanking they're taking care 00:08:48 of their whole nutrient package for the year. Why do they put it out up front? By the way, Tommy, for our friend over here from Quebec, 00:08:55 copious means lots. Uh, anyway, so, so the be the best chart, the best chart you ever had, and, 00:09:05 and nature is the only company that we've worked with, uh, here at Extreme Ag that does this. 00:09:10 And it just is so demonstrative, illustrative, whatever word you want to use of how wrong it would be to be trying to put so much out. 00:09:19 And then I think, and I'm not the agronomist, nor am I the farmer, when you throw out so much fertility all at once, 00:09:25 not only is it not there, does it mess up balance? Yes. Do you think that, Chad, do you want to answer this? I mean, do you think that all the phosphorus we put out 00:09:36 upfront is going to still be there when 50% of the phosphorus is needed past tassel? Do we think it's gonna be there? 00:09:44 Yeah, if you, if you don't do anything else before you leave, take your phone and take a picture of that chart 00:09:48 and take a picture of that chart and just take and just start looking at 'em and look at your fertility plan through the year 00:09:53 and look at how it's gonna uptake it. And then you start wrapping your mind around when it's available and what you have out there. 00:09:59 Like, if you learn nothing else, just take a picture of that, then you'll, you'll start understanding where the balance is. 00:10:06 All right, so what's the worst case scenario on the imbalance? All right, so I mean, is it costing me money? 00:10:12 Is it costing me yield? Or is it cost me long-term degradation? What's the, give me the code, Kevin, what do, what is it? 00:10:18 If everybody has imbalance problems, what, what's it cost them? Money is yield, yield is money. Is it net money? 00:10:27 Net ROI, 'cause we, we can get big yields, but if we spend too much, we've not made no money. So we definitely wanna do that. 00:10:34 Everything that they're saying, and Chad's talking about the charts, I'm so pushing that part because that's what we need 00:10:41 to learn is these uptakes. But another thing is we've got to know how to identify the growth stage of the plant. 00:10:48 So many people think they know, they feel like they know. But if you're off two 00:10:53 or three days during a, a maximum gdu, you can actually be applying at the wrong time and you can do as much harm to the plant 00:11:03 as you would've been doing. Good. Okay. So gimme the remedies. You went to each of these guys, talk about the prescriptive 00:11:08 plan that you did, and you said, all right, Kelly, I'm gonna attack this nutrient imbalance issue. What did you attack first and how, 00:11:17 Uh, an example of one we did last year, uh, for the first time, we know we've always concentrated our SAP analysis on corn. 00:11:22 Last year we concentrated on soybeans. Our soybeans were critically deficient of calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, 00:11:29 which doesn't surprise me when you understand the electrical charges of those elements, things like that in my soil 00:11:35 with the CECs, we have the, uh, the imbalances in my soil, those nutrients get tied up in incredibly fast 00:11:41 and they're just not available to the plant. And you, you know, using Mr Acetates calcium acetate, magnesium acetate, 00:11:48 and the sulfur products that they have, along with some potassium, we were able to make applications based on our SAP analysis 00:11:55 and we ended up making three applications and it was a 16 bushel yield gain in soybeans. That's a tremendous ROI. 00:12:01 And so like, the question is, are we losing yield or losing money when we're out of balance, we're wasting input dollars and we're losing yield? 00:12:08 The answer's yes to both. And so that's an example of our soybean research last year of how we remedied that imbalance 00:12:15 and it paid off in utilizing all of our inputs and it paid off in a big yield gain. How'd you fix your nutrient balance, Chad? 00:12:23 I still ain't fixed it, Chad. No, that's the problem everybody has, right? A hundred percent. And every time, 00:12:28 Every time you put something on, every time you put something on it has the chance then of distorting the balance, right? 00:12:34 Well, knowing is half the battle, right? So, you know, like I said, we're, it's a constant, it's a constant challenge, you know, to fix these things. 00:12:41 Me and Tommy's been through a lot a load of trials, like we've tried everything, you know, for certain things, but this is the new one that we're going to, 00:12:48 we're gonna learn more about. You know, I've, I've learned a lot over the years about boron. 00:12:51 You know, I've known a lot of guys about using too much or this, that, well, by the time we come back here next year, I'm gonna tell you all about magnesium. 00:12:58 I'm gonna be able to tell you how it won't work, why it won't work, and why, what makes it look like snot, you know? 00:13:02 So anyway, we're, we're going to manage that, but the only way to do that's gonna be getting in the root zone period, the roots are made to take up the nutrients, 00:13:10 the leaves are made to take up other things. Now we can f feed and that's fine, it's triggers, but we still gotta get 00:13:17 that bulk down here in the nutrition zone, what we're made to do, you know? So getting it in the right 00:13:22 place is what we're talking about. Okay? By the way, these are interactive sessions. If you have a question, if you have a comment, 00:13:30 if your name's Stewart, maybe not so much, but everybody else in here, if you have a question, we'd love to hear from you 00:13:36 and we want you to ask a question reminding you that questions in with a question mark. And, uh, it's a little joke from this morning anyway, 00:13:43 if you got a question you'd like to, you'd like to bring it up here with the guys, they'll be happy to ask. So if you got a question, raise your hand. 00:13:48 I'll bring you the microphone. Anybody got anything? Hey Kevin. So you, I think you mentioned knowing crop stage. 00:13:57 Talk about soybean, because historically we thought that we see first bloom. Oh my gosh, it's R one. 00:14:04 Tommy Is, is that true? Did you say first bloom? Yeah. Yeah. So no, first bloom, you need, uh, about 10 to 12 nodes fruiting, main stem fruiting nodes 00:14:17 before you're truly an R one growth stage. Indeterminate beans, you'll start seeing blooms very early into 00:14:23 the vegetation stage. Can You tell me how tall that is? Ask? Well, how tall is that? Well, actually, yes I can. 00:14:29 Um, if so you're, you're looking, uh, if you can stack your nodes one inch apart, what's one times 12, 12 inches. 00:14:37 There you go. There you go. All right, so on the chart, this is the other thing. And by the way, we've got trivia coming up. 00:14:43 You remember, if you come to this every year we do trivia. I've got $25 and $50 gift cards I'm gonna give away. 00:14:49 So get ready for trivia after I ask this question. Tommy, the chart down there that we all love the nutrients, uh, uh, requirement chart as it goes through the, the, 00:14:58 the life cycle of a plant at the end, is it just deficiency because the answer's gonna be hell, 00:15:04 I'll just throw more stuff on it. Is it deficiency that's a problem at the end, or is imbalance still an issue at the end? 00:15:09 Because the answer looks like it might be deficiency, I'll just fling more at it. No, and it's, it's imbalance 00:15:15 because, uh, there's a, there's a lot of hidden hunger out there saying in potassium, you, you may not see a deficient plant, 00:15:24 but why do I get a response when I continue to throw more nutrient at it? And I'm gonna go back to one other thing, soil-based. 00:15:36 So a lot of times if we have a lot of calcium, a lot of mag, we throw sulfur at it to help flush it. 00:15:44 Now the old extension university recommendations were how much sulfur for corn? 30 pounds. That was your just standard, standard rate. 00:15:58 Do we think we're getting enough sulfur out? Because remember when those recommendations were established, you were getting copious 00:16:09 amounts of free sulfur. You're getting no more free sulfur. So I'm not saying we ought to put double, 00:16:17 but we ought, well, Chad will put double yes, but I'm saying we ought to be putting on more sulfur, because guess what? 00:16:27 You have to have sulfur to produce protein. There's couple essential amino acids that require sulfur to make storage proteins in, in, in, uh, 00:16:39 endless sperm in corn. And we can get on that in another topic, but put on more sulfur, put on more 00:16:46 zinc. That's another topic. Micronutrients and balance. When I first joined extreme Ag, Chad talked about boron, boron, boron. 00:16:56 And I'm like, I never even heard about boron or it's importance in there. And then you guys are talking about 00:16:59 sulfur, you're talking about zinc. The importance of micronutrients when it comes to balance, because we still have a mindset, 00:17:05 the big three micronutrients, whoever wants to take this micronutrients roll in, keeping nutrient balanced. 00:17:10 Which crop are we talking about? Let's go with, we're here. Commodity classic. Let's start with corn. 00:17:15 Corn's gonna be zinc. You're usually deficient. Uh, You can't get too much of it. So far I hadn't found so, 00:17:22 So Kelly told me or told a recording we did once you did a poll, you, you sampled and you never found a sample 00:17:30 that was not deficient in zinc. You wanna speak to that? Yes. Um, the agronomy group, uh, calibrated agronomy. 00:17:36 Uh, when we talk about SAP samples, we've got 4,000 SAP samples in our database. We have yet to see one that's sufficient on zinc. 00:17:43 When we pull it, we always have to add zinc. Kevin's a hundred percent, right? We're Agreeing together. We agree. 00:17:47 Hey, that's Pretty cool. All Right, you wanna go with sulfur? You wanna go with boron? What do you wanna go with next? 00:17:53 Uh, su sulfur. We, we now, with the, my agronomy group again, calibrated agronomy, we now believe 00:17:59 that probably we should put on one unit of sulfur for every unit of nitrogen. So like the 30 pounds is not near enough. 00:18:05 And, and if you're putting that sulfur on and it's soil applied, that sulfur becomes a soil amendment. It's not there for fertility. 00:18:12 And so, uh, the amount of sulfur that's needed for our crops is monster mental in my soil. It's huge. Any, any questions at all about any of this? 00:18:21 I just heard that you gotta put one unit of sulfur on for every unit of nitrogen, which our friend over here that doesn't know how many counties are in 00:18:27 Texas said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Okay, So have you actually, I know you've been cutting back your nitrogen, 00:18:34 but have you actually like tried 200 units of s and do you what form of s Sorry? What form of s and have you put into? 00:18:42 I, well, I don't put on 200 units of nitrogen, you know, and I, and so like, I, I'll, 00:18:47 I oftentimes will have 80 pounds of elemental sulfur. Yeah. All right. 70 pounds of nitrogen. So any other questions? 00:18:54 Okay, boron. And, and by the way, some of these things I still want you to talk to. 'cause it's about nutrient balance. 00:19:00 They sound like deficiencies, not just imbalances. So I think the tendency's gonna be, oh, I just need to put more zinc on, uh, on my crop. 00:19:09 Does that mean that there was an imbalance or does it mean that I never had enough zinc to begin with? I don't think we ever had enough to get, 00:19:15 never had enough to begin with. You Know, people say a lot of times like, Hey, I've got enough of that I don't need anymore. 00:19:20 No, you don't have enough of that. You don't, don't have enough of the one that it needs to be the ratio with. 00:19:25 So if it's phosphorus or zinc, then your zinc's low. If your phosphorus is high, it's not that your hos phosphorus is too 00:19:31 high. Is your zinc's too low? Again, it's an incomplete statement. Yeah, it's the ratio between the two. Yeah. 00:19:36 Calcium to mag. I mean, not calcium to mag, but potassium to mag potassium. So going, going back to then how you remedy this, 00:19:43 you talked about an acetate solution. So Chad, what have you done with nature's help to get the balance right 00:19:49 and uptake into the crop when that crop starts to be down toward here, down toward the end? Well, I'm just doing that this year. Fixing to do it. 00:19:56 We're fixing to do it. We're gonna tell you what's gonna happen. Okay? What's gonna happen? Fix 00:19:59 It. We're gonna fix it. You're gonna fix it. Well, tell me how you're fixing to fix it. 00:20:02 Well, I'm, I'm gonna try to fix it. So we're gonna put a, we're gonna put a half a gallon, uh, in furrow is what we're gonna do. 00:20:11 Well, if all the ground that we stripped till, because of the way magnesium is gonna affect everything else, if anybody ever, ever tried to put phosphorus 00:20:18 and magnesium together, it makes snot a hundred percent snot. So whatever application we can make with just nitrogen, 00:20:25 which would be my, with be my strip freshener bar, then we would put, we're going slide the magnesium in that. Whichever way we can get it out. 00:20:31 But we're gonna put a half a gallon in the, in the zone to start with. That's where we start. And then we're gonna start trickling 00:20:38 along because I think Temple had some tests last year. We, he had a gallon in season through the whole year, I think four applications 00:20:45 that he showed great results from, and it moved the needle. So we know that we're shooting toward 00:20:50 that gallon range at the end of the year. And we, the good thing about the product is affordable. I mean, we are looking at, I don't know 00:20:58 what, six bucks an acre or so. Yeah, I mean, six bucks a gallon a gallon, six bucks a gallon. 00:21:01 You know, Kevin, I want you to talk about, and I don't know if this is the right thing 'cause I'm not the farmer or the agronomist. 00:21:09 When we did a recording a couple years ago about the right kinda lime and the wrong kinda lime, does lime mess up? 00:21:15 Does the wrong kinda lime? 'cause you said you had dolomitic and some other type does the wrong kind, lime 00:21:22 does the wrong kinda lime, uh, worsen nutrient balance, or does the right kinda lime enhance nutrient balance and improve it? 00:21:30 So he's talking about dogmatic and cal ctic. Typically, your nearest lime source is the wrong lime source because that's lime source is gonna be 00:21:39 with the same problem as your soil's got. So for us, our lime comes from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, which is, uh, pretty expensive, you know, 60 bucks a ton 00:21:48 to get it in there, but it's extremely high in calcium. Our soils are extremely high in magnesium, very low in calcium, but we're naturally low pH. 00:21:59 But a lot of areas don't have that luxury because they're high pH. So they can't correct anything because of the high pH. 00:22:07 They just make the pH higher, so they gotta go different avenues. Tommy, anything on that topic? 00:22:16 P pH pH and nutrient balance the correlation. So, so don't Forget, um, Mr. 00:22:21 Acetate says that you get a, you get as much benefit out of acetate as you get out of the nutrient. So yes, I'm all about potassium, calcium now mag now. 00:22:36 But you cannot discount the effect you're getting with acetate. Am I correct? Yes. Any questions? Anybody have a question out here? 00:22:49 We wanna make sure as interactive as possible to make this all very useful. I got one over here from Jason Taylor, Illinois farmer, and 00:22:55 after that we're gonna do another trivia. Hey, if I'm, if I'm foliar feeding soybeans, uh, K and boron, what else would I add? 00:23:03 Do I need a fulvic acid? Yes, I would like to have that in there. Depending on the stage that you're at, 00:23:10 I'm hoping you're talking about putting it on bow or four. That way you're going into rapid seed fill 00:23:16 because that's when you can get the most bang for your buck to get that seed size as large as you can possibly get it. 00:23:23 If you do it at R three, which is honestly, it runs outta gas before you get there with these foliar, it just not enough 00:23:31 to stay in the plants to get it to where it r ois. You also need to look at your temperatures if it's real hot and quite frankly between 11:00 AM 00:23:42 and four 5:00 PM don't put none out. You're wasting your money for what I'm seeing most parts. Okay, by the way, I, I want to get into some, 00:23:52 any other questions, go ahead and raise your hand. I want to hear from you. You said the most important thing is to take care of it for the plant right now 00:24:00 because remedying the soils imbalance is a long term project. If I'm taking care of it this year with the plant, 00:24:07 does it speed up the pace at which I am, get my soil balanced? Or does that matter? Two separate things 00:24:15 or the same thing? Two separate Things. Two separate things. Uh, 00:24:18 I do think it's nice when we can balance the plant and then that stove, that residue from the plant. I do think that we get some benefit from there, 00:24:25 but it is really two separate things. Okay. And now I'm, I'm running out of, uh, ideas on how to make this nutrient imbalance thing, uh, a new subject 00:24:34 because I mean, I I'm over here thinking I, once you correct it, you correct it, but I'm probably wrong on that. 00:24:41 Has it changed season to season? Yes, it changes season to season depending on the rainfall for us and things like that. 00:24:47 And I, I really don't know that we ever can correct our soil. Uh, the, my soil can be high calcium manheim meg, 00:24:55 the opposite problem these guys have. And why I, it's a journey, not a destination, you know, we continue to work on it, things like that. 00:25:03 But if, if you stop, it's gonna re Yeah, grab the other mic here and see if that works for you. 00:25:09 If, if we stop trying to amend that soil, it's gonna revert back. And then again, you know, the CECs 00:25:14 and the charges in the soil, things like that. Um, I, I, I can struggle with my base saturation potassium because my mag and calcium is too high. 00:25:22 And every time we go across the field, we almost wanna put on potassium acetate every time we go across the field. 00:25:28 We wanna put on Molly to help with the nitrogen assimilation. Every time we go across the field, we wanna put on zinc, 00:25:34 you know, that that's put, um, on your corn crop and your bean crop. And the, the, the soil balance thing is, you know, 00:25:41 it's a little bit the same, but it can vary year to year based on the problems that we have and the rainfall we have and, and, 00:25:46 and the crop that we have. Just like Kevin said before, There's gonna be a tendency out here. Somebody I say, and I want any of you farmers to take it, 00:25:52 and I wanna hear from Tommy, you know what, we're in a very depressed farm economy in terms of the commodity prices right now. 00:25:57 You just talked about going across this field and putting on zinc and you talked about adding more sulfur and you talked about these new units that I didn't use. 00:26:03 I can make a pretty easy economic excuse for not doing this. Am I making a very shortsighted decision, presumably 00:26:09 In my, in my opinion, yes. You know, uh, throughout agriculture is in Iowa at least, we always wanna put that dry fertility on in the fall 00:26:17 after harvest, and then we wanna be ready for the whole year and then we're gonna cut back on the things 00:26:21 of the foliar and things like that. I think that's the exact wrong thing to do. We should be cutting out that dry 00:26:27 and we should be living off that soil savings account that's in the soil. And then we should supplement 00:26:31 with the foliage we're talking about. 'cause they're much less expensive and there's a much bigger return right away versus 00:26:36 that dry fertilizer, in my opinion. Okay, Mike? Real? Yes, Chad. And, And remember too about 00:26:40 which nutrients you're talking about. I mean, where Zinc's gonna stick around or we can fix it more prone than the sulfur's not, and the borons not so, 00:26:48 so certain ones are gonna stick around longer than other ones according to what environments you're in. 00:26:52 You know, whether it's cold or hot or where you're at in the stages. You know, um, something new we're gonna do this year is 00:26:57 we're gonna have soil samples pulled and, uh, let's say the plants, corn plants are gonna be V two. 00:27:02 We're gonna pull some soil samples there and see what's gonna be available for this season right now, right in front of us. 00:27:08 And then we'll work off that as well. Give me now the economics of this thing, of how you look at it. 00:27:13 And every year it was pretty easy to get, uh, creative three years ago. You gotta script your dollars and you gotta be really smart. 00:27:20 What's the first move that these people should make? The very first thing they should do is say, I'm imbalanced. I will do this. 00:27:27 Don't put it out all up front. Anything. You, you cannot, you can't change directions if you spend your entire fertility budget 00:27:36 before the crop even goes in the ground. You've got to say, we call it reallocation, relocation, whatever you want to call it, but you can't spend everything 00:27:47 up front because you, you have no way to react If it's a good, if you got rain, things are looking great, you already spent your bank, 00:27:55 you can't help it during the season. So save some back. All right, your your first recommendation. I want each guy to say 00:28:04 the very first thing that you're gonna do. 'cause remember, maybe it's a brand new idea for everybody that's in this, uh, room right now. 00:28:09 And they say, I'll start by doing what I reallocation is what I would do. We, I feel that I'm raising my crop again 00:28:17 as inexpensively as possible. I'm reallocating the nitrogen spend in the micronutrients. If I can reach that 95% assimilation level of the nitrogen, 00:28:26 the crop is healthy enough. We haven't used fungicide for a couple years. We still put fungicide on a couple fields. 00:28:31 Last year there was zero yield gain from the fungicide, but you had the expense of the fungicide and the corn was three points wetter. 00:28:37 So then we had to dry that field. And so again, if I can reach the nitrogen assimilation with the reallocation of theEnd, 00:28:45 we're raising the crop less, the crop's reaching its potential. It's healthier. It we're, we're making our potential yield. 00:28:52 Start with what first thing you say, all right, I've got imbalance, I'm a little overwhelmed. I I wanna start easy. What do I start? The easy, 00:29:00 Well, I mean, number one is you have to know like, we're gonna know what our imbalance is. Where, where's it at? What's 00:29:05 Worst problem? Which thing are you deficient? Worst? 00:29:06.395 --> 00:29:06.715 What's our problem? You know? So, and I would say fix, try 00:29:09 to fix one thing at a time. If you try to fix multiple things, you're gonna get overwhelmed. 00:29:13 Am I starting by detecting my deficiency with sap tissue or soil? Soil? So all Kevin says, all the above. You say soil. 00:29:20 Well, I mean, we're gonna start with a soil and then we're going to see it through the year. And, and remember, like we may have 00:29:26 to go through this whole season. If you don't know that, you may go through this whole season just learning 00:29:30 what you're gonna fix next season. And remember, Okay, give the mic, give the microphone. Don't tell me please Remember what tissue is. 00:29:38 Tissue is not designed to correct something this year. It's a roadmap for next year. So you, you, when you get into sap now, you can react 00:29:49 somewhat to what, what's what the plant status is going on right now, but you cannot with tissue. It's, it's for next year. 00:29:57 Okay? So tissue gives you your, uh, guidance for next year's correction of defic of, uh, imbalance. But soil starts now, and then SAP is immediate. 00:30:08 Mr. Tommy, I'm glad you paid attention this morning. I did. But yeah, he, everything they said is a hundred percent right. 00:30:15 And another thing earlier Chad talked about was during that season, he's gonna be pulling some soil samples. That's something that's really important. 00:30:26 You get out later on in the season. I hadn't thought about doing it quite as early as you mentioned, but you get on out 00:30:31 there towards reproduction. It's really interesting to see what kind of demand that plant has put in that root zone on 00:30:37 that soil that you started with. So you knew what your soil samples were early on. Let's see how it's holding out. 00:30:43 How did that fertilize that you put in that zone, change the availability to that plant. And then that also kind 00:30:49 of gives you a heads up which direction you need to go with that foliar to address that lease limiting factor. 00:30:54 Because this, it is always one thing that's causing the problem. And then it multiplies after that. 00:31:01 Now, once you fix that one thing, then you've got something else to figure out what your next problem is. 00:31:05 To talk about nutrient balance and what you can be doing on your farm. The big takeaway for me was, uh, correct the plant right now 00:31:14 and the soil's a long-term project and then start easy, which if you gave that final thought, Kevin, final thought. 00:31:20 How f how long were you out of balance until you finally made this adjustment? And then how telling was it, how, 00:31:26 how eyeopening was it when you're like, holy crap, I was off The majority of my farming career. It seems like 00:31:34 Still ain't there, but still, I don't think we're still in balance. Like, I don't know if you'll ever be, you know, 00:31:39 you just fix, like I said, you fix one thing at a time. I did go out one time and try to fix zinc and I put it all on in one year. 00:31:45 So I did do that on the spot. It didn't work right? It only worked fine. Oh, okay. It Worked. It's working good, but 00:31:50 still even with that, like I put on 30 pounds of zinc, you know, which is pretty good money, 00:31:55 but we put on 30 pounds of zinc in a field, but we kept it, but we still had to maintain that ratio, right? 00:32:02 So it still didn't like fix it like you're forever done. We just got close now to where we can work with it. 00:32:07 Okay, Kelly, final thought on nutrient balance. And then again, same thing. When did you finally realize 00:32:12 and then what the aha moment was? The aha moment came for me last year when we talk about sulfur and things like that. 00:32:18 Um, working with the Neo Kinsey lab and now we understand some of the metrics. We have a, uh, we have a customer, uh, a friend 00:32:26 of mine in North central Iowa and the Neo Kinsey lab talks about if your base saturation magnesium plus calcium is over 80, you have a problem. 00:32:35 Most of my soils do, well, James is the sum of the two numbers is 97 and he's in north central Iowa. So his CECs are, you know, 00:32:42 higher number than mine and things like that. And the Kinsey lab came back and we talk about getting this soil back a thousand pounds 00:32:48 of sulfur is what it would take to get this soil back to the perfect state. That's an aha moment. 00:32:54 Now we're talking about using that, and that's, none of that's fertility, that's soil amendment. And so that's what it takes 00:33:00 to move the needle to get into balance. And so the goal, you know, and we're never gonna go put a thousand pounds of sulfur on, 00:33:06 that's, that's not what I'm suggesting, but knowing that having that information is the power. That's what it takes to become in balance. 00:33:13 The goal is we want to have an economic return. We might not ever reach balance and it's, we not, might not ever reach balance, 00:33:20 but if we can get closer to that and get an economic return, that's what it's all about. That's what your true goal should be, is getting 00:33:26 that economic return. We might not ever get to perfection. And James is an example of that 00:33:30 with the challenges in his soil. Okay. And then I want to go to, uh, Tommy to get us a wrap on this. 00:33:37 By the way, that thing, a thousand pounds of sulfur, how far off you were, that means you got a long way to go, but can a little bit change the needle? 00:33:46 I mean, a thousand pounds fix it, but a does one 10th of that. Yes. Move The needle. You know, 00:33:51 that's why, that's why we talk about feeding the plant and stuff. You can imagine how, how tied up the fertility get in James' 00:33:58 soil when it's that far off and 80 pounds, 80 pounds of sulfur every year gives James an economic return. He's, we're never gonna be able to afford 00:34:07 to put a thousand pounds on and I don't think we should try it, but knowing that that's how far out we are, 00:34:12 I mean, that's an amazing number. It, it blew me away when that came back. The, the question we asked was, 00:34:18 why is nutrient balance important? We talked about, obviously it's, it's long-term degradation of your soil, you're losing yield in the 00:34:24 meantime, et cetera, et cetera. Tommy, final wrap on this subject. It's your subject. It's a good one. And it, like you said, and, 00:34:30 and all the three farmers here said they were all outta whack and probably most farms are outta whack on nutrient balance. 00:34:36 So I would say don't be afraid to try something different. Uh, just Kevin, just to show that I was at the 00:34:44 session this morning, Matt said, which he'll be on the panel tomorrow, um, if you're not moving forward. 00:34:52 He didn't say it in these terms, but you're gonna get run over. So you gotta you've gotta keep moving forward changing. 00:35:00 Don't be afraid to think outside the box. 'cause a lot of these, a lot of these things that we're talking about, 00:35:06 it's not your traditional way of thinking. Traditional way of thinking was what granddaddy did four years, four generations ago. 00:35:16 Yeah. And that's not where we're at today. So keep moving forward. Oh, Okay. Nope, Chad, 00:35:22 I mean the Only Real reason that's traditional is because that's all they had. That's all they had. So we just lock in on what Papa had, 00:35:30 you know, and that's what we could stay with, Which obviously is a great, We have More than a hammer. 00:35:35 There's a great answer. There's a great, a great answer right there. Obviously you're at Commodity Classic for a reason 00:35:39 because we've got better tools than granddad had for God's sakes. And you got the wealth of information, 00:35:44 which I guess we can leave it right there. The nature's people are all wearing the same clothing. You can probably notice that. Find 00:35:49 them, talk to 'em about this. That's why we're here. The bar is open until 6:00 PM We will be in this very spot tomorrow at 00:35:55 1:30 PM we'll be doing it with Matt and with, uh, Johnny and Temple. Matt, Johnny and Temple are our panels from extreme Ag. 00:36:04 John, uh, Tommy's gonna be here. I'm gonna be here. We want you to be here. Stay here until 6:00 PM Thank you very much 00:36:10 for making the successful session. We hope we gave you valuable information to help you farm better. 918 00:36:15.035 --> 00:36:15.645