By Darren Hefty
I don’t know which crops you are going to plant on each field this year, but I do know one thing: every different crop you grow has nutritional requirements that must be met. Whether the crop will find the nutrients from the soil, the air, the water, or a foliar application, it still has to get it done.
In the case of micronutrients, where will your crop find them on your farm? On far too many farms, this question cannot be answered. No one has measured what’s in the soil, or if they did, they only sampled for zinc and not any of the other micronutrients. No, I’m not saying that copper is the key to your yields and you’re giving up 10 bushels of corn per acre without it. I also am not suggesting you definitely aren’t losing yield.
I can’t tell you – if you aren’t measuring.
Our suggestion is taking grid or zone soil samples across each field and doing a complete soil analysis, including micronutrients among other things. The good news is unless you make major applications of micros, the level of micros in the soil doesn’t change much from year to year compared to N, P, and K, which are removed from the soil in much greater quantities each year by your crops.
HERE’S WHAT TO LOOK FOR ON YOUR SOIL TESTS
(these numbers pertain to a Midwest Labs’ DTPA extraction method rather than any other test run at any other lab):
If you get your soils in these ranges and moderate your soil pH (almost all micros are more available when soils are neutral to slightly acidic), your crop should be in pretty good shape for micronutrients. If not, your fields could be prime candidates for micronutrient applications this growing season.
With every input on your farm, calculate the potential return on investment for this season and for the long term. We’ve been working on building micronutrient levels in our fields for years and have seen the applications pay in better yields and healthier soils and crops. With a strong potential for profit this season, consider addressing micronutrient issues, and watch your fields closely for their response!
For a quicker response, band micros but don’t put too much in the furrow. A 2 X 2 or strip-till puts the small doses of micros right where the roots can take them up. If you’re looking to build the soil with significantly more micros than this year’s crop is going to use, I would always recommend broadcasting them to greatly add to crop safety.