Post-Harvest Reflections

December 12, 2024

We are at the point in the year where things are slowing down around the farm and it is time to reflect on the season to remind ourselves what we learned. Over the last couple of weeks, the District Sales Managers and I have spent some time reflecting on what worked well in the field and the challenges we faced too.

Here are the top 5 things we learned from 2024 growing season:

Split applying Nitrogen and Sulfur is a practice that should be embraced on a yearly basis when growing corn. Do you remember how the planting season started and what happened in the first 60 days after the planters started rolling? Our field conditions started out dry with some areas of the corn belt showing up on the drought map. Then mother nature blessed us with rain that never stopped in some areas making it difficult to finish planting. Growers that had split applied their Nitrogen and Sulfur were able to avoid nutrient loss from the rain but also apply the nutrients when the crop needed it most. In the end yield was better on split applied nitrogen fields compared to fields that had all the N applied in the fall or spring before planting.

For the past 2 seasons in the North region, we have seen the benefits of adding NACHURS Humi-Flex FA to the in-furrow starter fertilizer. NACHURS Humi-Flex FA is our fulvic acid and it is becoming a valuable component in our starter fertilizer for many reasons. We are using it to chelate the nutrients in the starter fertilizer especially phosphorus. Humi-Flex FA also buffers the soil pH to neutral in that nutrient band keeping nutrients available in fields that have less then optimal pH for crop growth. Finally, we use Humi-Flex FA to create a healthy soil microbiome that leads to more root mass and nutrient uptake.

Nutrient uptake charts for corn and soybeans have been a great tool for our team to help our customers visualize the crops nutrient needs based on timing during the growing season.

For example, in corn production traditional the nutrients applied during a sidedress or Y-drop application has been Nitrogen and most recently Nitrogen and Sulfur. If you look at the uptake chart for corn during V8-V12 the crop is demanding more than just Nitrogen and Sulfur. Have you considered adding NACHURS Bio-K to meet the potassium need or micro-nutrients such as Zinc and Boron. Over the last three years of 3rd party trial data has indicated that more nitrogen in the sidedress/Y-drop application doesn’t equate to more yield. We are seeing a yield response when we apply a balanced blend of nutrients such as N, K, S and micro-nutrients.

Soybeans on the other hand benefit most from nutrient applications beginning at R1 through R5 because the nutrient uptake chart indicates the demand for nutrients begins during the reproductive stages. We are seeing great results foliar feeding soybeans throughout the North Region and the best part is we are not making any additional sprayer passes to foliar feed the crop. NACHURS liquid fertilizer products tank mix well with herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide making it easy to apply.

Y-drop application on soybeans at R1 is going to become the norm based on what we’re experiencing in the field form a plant health perspective and yield advantage compared to the grower standard practice. The Y-drop application allows us to apply N, P, K, S and mirco-nutrients precisely next to the plant stem and roots later in the growing season when the crop needs the nutrients most. After the application we see larger stems, larger root mass and larger soybean leaves that will maximum the crops yield potential.

Late season foliar applications at R5 on soybeans adds bushels. Have you ever dug up a soybean root at R5 to evaluate the nodules. What you will find is that the internal color begins to fade from pink to a more white/clear color. This indicates that the nodule has stopped fixing nitrogen. We know that soybeans only product 60% of its nitrogen needs for the season when you get into yield environments above 60 bushel per acre. Foliar apply nutrients at R5 are increasing yield in a high yield soybean environment. NACHURS NocKout has been the go-to product for late season foliar applications providing nitrogen, potassium, and boron to boost top end yield.

Chad Smith, Sales Agronomist US North

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