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If you soil test in-crop with the hope of using those tests to fertilize in the fall, that’s fine if you are doing composite testing and figuring a field average – but in today’s age, why not use the best technology, run with variable rate, and only apply what you need where you need it? We’ve been using the VRAFY fertility and soil test software the last few years on our farm. It can take the spring in-crop grid soil tests we pull and meld that together with this fall’s yield data, so we know what we started with for fertility and we know what we pulled off with this year’s crop. Since metrics like soil pH and organic matter don’t change easily, we very accurately know what to apply in every single grid on our farm this fall.

After harvest, by the time you pull soil samples, wait for results, and then decide what to apply, that could take two to three weeks! Some years, you have that much time, but unfortunately, sometimes winter sets in before you can get everything done. If you pull samples in-crop in the spring, that part is done.

Within a day after you harvest your field, that data goes into the VRAFY system, which then gives you two great options in terms of how you could do your variable rate fertility. Either you can simply apply what you removed, which is based on yield data and crop removal information, or you can have the VRAFY people merge your yield data together with your spring soil test data to make recommendations for you. In both cases, controller files can be sent to you or your applicator, allowing fertilizer to be applied within days or even hours after you pull off the crop.

If you get your soil sampling done in-crop in the spring, you now have all summer to look at the information, talk to your agronomist and others, and make an informed decision before you pull the trigger on applications this fall. When you fall soil test and fall fertilize, you probably only have a day or two to decide what to do after you get the results, and that’s at your busiest time of year when you are likely tired and don’t have time to properly analyze all your options.

The seasonal low for fertilizer prices is usually in August. If you already know at that point roughly what you will need for fall, you have the opportunity to get in on the lowest prices of the year and get prepared for fall applications. Sure, there will be some fine-tuning needed in the fall, but the more time you have to plan where to invest your fertilizer dollars, the more likely you are to make great decisions.

In May and June, you and every other company out there can take advantage of the huge labor pool of high school and college students on summer break. These are often the people who are out pulling soil samples, and they can do a great job thanks in part to modern technology which tells them exactly where to go in each field. Plus, the days are long in May and June. Where we farm near Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on June 21 there are about 15.5 hours of daylight. In October, when fall samples are often being pulled, there are nearly five fewer hours of daylight! That’s a big deal if you are trying to pull lots of soil tests.

Most of the in-crop soil testing we do is in fields that will go to corn next year, since those are the fields most people will fertilize this fall. These samples are pulled down to 6 inches, and we run a complete Mehlich 3 analysis. For this year’s corn fields, we do something different. We like pulling 0” to 12” cores; and separately, we’ll pull 12” to 24” soil cores. Then, we run nitrate-only tests, which only cost around $5 each. With this information, we can determine if we need to add more nitrogen this year to meet our corn yield goals.

For example, if you send in one soil sample for 40 acres, you are likely to overfertilize half the field, underfertilize the other half, and you’ll never find out why some areas aren’t yielding like they should. While we run one-acre grids on our farm, most farmers use five-acre grids. Now that complete soil tests only cost $12 per sample, at five-acre grids that is only $2.40 per acre, so even if you sample half your acres each year, that’s a cost of just $1.20 per acre spread across all your acres each growing season for some great information.