Have you heard from a fertilizer dealer or another ag advisor that micronutrients don’t matter? What do you believe? A majority of the soil samples we see today still don’t have all the important micronutrients on the tests. If you’re not measuring micros, how can you appropriately manage them? There are a lot of questions around micronutrients, and frankly, Brian and I have been curious about them since Dad started putting them into our livestock rations when we were kids. To get some answers, back in 2004 we did a research project across 650 corn farms in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota called ‘The Micro Challenge’.
THE MICRO CHALLENGE
The goal of The Micro Challenge was simple. Pull plant tissue tests on a corn field from each of 650 different farm operations. Then, compile the data to see how well plant nutrient needs were being met. We had a few guesses as to what we would learn, but when the data came back, it was eye-opening.
In general, the farmers in the study were doing a good job with nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus. Those were not yield-limiting factors. Potassium was another story, with 40% of fields tested running short of the amount of K needed to maximize yield potential. However, the biggest takeaway from the study was the critical importance of adding micronutrients – 98% of all the samples had one or more micronutrients either low or deficient!
Four years later, after spreading the word about micronutrient limiting yield in almost every field we tested, we were curious how much of a difference there would be if we did a similar study. This time, we tested one corn field on each of 342 different farms. Though the results were a little different, we still found 95% of all fields tested to be low or deficient in one or more micronutrients. This time, the results showed even more fields missing some of the critical primary and secondary nutrients (N, P, K, & S), as well.
In 2022, there is a great opportunity to make money on your crops, and fertilizer costs are at or near all-time highs. Has there ever been a better time to finally get a handle on the nutrients your crops are using? If we ran another Micro Challenge, the results would very likely be similar to what we’ve found in the past. How much more profit could you make if you dialed in your fertilizer budget and didn’t run short or long on anything? Also, if micronutrients are truly short in 95% of fields or more, wouldn’t you want to know if a lack of micros is robbing yield on your farm?