CQ Perspectives Sep 2009

8/4/2019 CQ Perspectives Sep 2009

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OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF CROP QUEST AGRONOMIC SERVICES, INC

C r o p Q u e s t P e r s p e c t i v e s

Volume 19 Issue 5 September 2009

FITTING SOIL SAMPLINGTO FARM

KEY TO PRODUCTIVITY

AND PROFIT

Nathan Woydziak

Continued on Page

The recent spikes in fertilizer costs have convinced many farmersto take a closer look at crop selection, fertilizer sources, and the needfor more accurate and timely soil sampling to maximize the value oftheir inputs.

Crop Quest agronomists are ideally situated to provide accurate,meaningful and cost-effective advice on soil testing strategies. Inaddition to a network of Crop Quest agronomists from whom vastexperience can be drawn, they have access to the latest high tech andprecision application and soil monitoring capabilities.

Crop Quest Precision Ag Specialist Nathan Woydziak says thereare two basic strategies grid sampling and zone sampling for soil

testing, both used extensively and successfullythroughout the Midwest.

In addition to these methods which have beenaround since the mid-1990s, Crop Quest agrono-mists are using the Greenseeker and Veris equip-ment to get an even better idea of soil fertility.Combined with GPS technology, Greenseekerand Veris have provided big dollar savingsto a handful of growers using these high techsampling strategies, Woydziak says.

The Veris system uses GPS and thetechnology of soil electrical conductivity (EC)to identify areas of contrasting soil properties.

When the Veris Sensor Cart is pulled through the eld, it acquiresmeasurements, geo-referencing them using GPS. The data collectedby the Sensor Cart is then displayed on an instrument panel, along

with its coordinates. The result is a map that identies the contrastingsoil conductivity.Greenseeker technology utilizes applicator-mounted optical

sensors that emit and analyze reected light to determinecrop vigor. Sensor readings can be geo-referenced to cre-

ate vigor maps(NDVI) or maybe used to vari-able-rateapply any inputin real time.

Crop Questowns bothGreenseeker

and Veris units, which are availableto company agronomists to use withtheir growers. The use of Veris,Greenseeker, plus highly efcientRTK-equipped GPS systemsthat provide repeatable accuracyof less than an inch, is likely toincrease the amount of variablerate application, which is alreadywidely used in the Midwest.

In most cases Woydziak saysfarmers use variable rate applica-tion of fertilizers, if they have taken advantage of grid sampling.Most of the growers I work with own their own variable rate rigsbut there are also customapplicators that use some of the more high tech inputs to dovariable rate application, according to Woydziak.

In addition to the high tech equipment coming online, CropQuest agronomists continue to tweak grid and zone sampling techniques to provide growers a more accurate picture of soil fertility

Grid sampling uses a systematic approach that divides the eldinto squares or rectangles of equal size (usually referred to as gridcells). Soil samples are collected from within each of these cellsThe location of each grid cell is usually geo-referencedusing global positioning system technology.

Some of the soil and production criteria that favor the use ofgrid sampling include:

A measure of non-mobile nutrients is the primary concernwith no movement, distribution will be affected less bytopography and other xed properties.

The soil test levels in the eld range from very high to verylow with substantial acres in both the very high and verylowcategories; management practices used in the past wiloverridenatural variability.

There is a history of manure use.

Small elds have been merged into large elds; differencesinpast management may have larger inuences on soil teslevels than natural variability.

The eld history is not known.

Crop Quest agronomists still do lots of soilsampling by taking a composite (multiple samples)on approximately 40 acres as suggested by the landgrant university system. Generally, this is a less accu-rate method of sampling than zone or grid samples,but it is also less expensive. Due to the savings incost, it is the most widely used soil sampling methodrequested by Crop Quest customers. It is a much bet-ter option than not soil testing at all.


2/4C r o p Q u e s t P e r s p e c t i v e s w w w . c r o p q u e s t . c o

Crop Quest Agronomist Lee Nolden hasrecently moved to Prairie Du Sac, Wisconsin to

bring Crop Quest Agronomic Services to thatarea. Nolden, a Wisconsin native with a degreein Agronomy from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, was an independent crop consultantand farmer. When his wife accepted a job posi-tion in Kansas, he learned about Crop Questand joined the Crop Quest team in the Pratt /St. John Division where he has worked thepast three years.

Nolden was presented the opportunity to buyinto his familys farm and return to Wisconsin.He took advantage of the offer while decidingto take Crop Quest with him. Excited to workwith Wisconsin producers, Nolden plans toexplain the benets and services offered by

Crop Quest. The major crops grown in thisarea consist of corn, soybeans, alfalfa and somewheat, and I have new ideas

and crop base knowledgeto apply to any po-

tential customer,Nolden says.

His prior eldexperience inaddition tothe networkof support andknowledge of

fellow CropQuest agronomists

will give him an

advantage in working with Wisconsingrowers. Utilizing the knowledge

gained while working with produc-ers in the High Plains, Nolden hasextensive experience with rowcrops, irrigation and technologythat he is ready to share and adaptwith northern U.S. farmers.

Another service feature Noldenwill offer producers is help withNutrient Management Plans (NMP).Since the State of Wisconsin will soonmandate anyone applying manure or com-mercial fertilizer to have completed NMPs,Nolden will provide assistance with theseplans. He has experience working with Nutri-ent Management Plans in both Kansas and

Wisconsin in addition to soil sampling andfertilizer recommendations which has preparedhim to provide a complete consulting packagefor producers.

Deciding to stay with Crop Quest dueto Employee-Ownership and the network ofexperienced agronomists working in nine stateswill allow me to provide outstanding, profes-sional service to farmers in my home area,states Nolden. He also emphasizes that his goalis to work with people, customize plans forindividual operations and help Wisconsin farm-ers be as efcient and protable as possible.Nolden looks forward to promoting the CropQuest mission and value-added service in hishome state.

Fitting Soil Sampling To Farm ... Continued from Page 1

Zone sampling uses a more subjective and intuitive approach todivide any eld into smaller units. Soil samples collected at randomfrom within each zone are mixed together and analyzed to provide anaverage sample value for each unit.

Criteria that favor the use of zone sampling include:

Cost of sampling and analysis is a major concern; zones may belarger than grid cells thereby lowering sampling costs.

A measure of mobile nutrients is the primary concern.

Relatively low rates of fertilizer have been applied in recentyears.

There is no history of manure application.

The history of the eld is known and can be used to divide theeld into smaller units; a more accurate judgment can be madewhen all available information is used.

Crop Quest Agronomist Farrell Allison in Greensburg, KS, saysboth methods work ne, depending on the situation. I do quite a bitof grid sampling in my areas. There is enough variability in fertility inmost of the elds I work to make it pay off, he says.

Its not unusual to sample a eld in which one area is two parts permillion (PPM) phosphorus and in another area of the eld, the soil is40-plus ppm. By grid sampling, Ive been able to bring low fertilityareas up and not fertilizing in other areas of the eld, increasing over-all production and decreasing fertilizer costs, Allison says.

For example, Allison cites one grower in particular who was hav-ing some production problems with his wheat. They did some sam-pling and found he needed only to top dress his wheat in the spring.He had been putting around 30 lbs. to 40 lbs. phoshorus per acre onthis land every year.

We saved him a lot of money, with phosphorus now at $1.00 perunit thats $30 per acre saved primarily from timely soil testing,

Allison says. On the other end of the spectrum, not having enougfertilizer applied can cost you in low yields, he adds.

Zone sampling, Allison says, gives you less information, butsometimes in elds with long histories of good fertility you donas much information. There are plenty of situations in which zonsampling works just ne, he stresses.

The other thing weve done is layered yield maps over soil tand grid samples. That gives you a more detailed look at the soilgives a grower some alternatives on what crop to plant in a partield and how much fertility is needed for various crops, Allison

Though there is no precise time to pull soil samples during th

season, a good practice is to get in the eld as soon as the crop ivested, or about the same time each year. This gives you uniforminformation and allows you to make more precise comparisons ahow things change from one year to the next.

I typically go out right after the crop is har-vested, especially in these large, irrigated eldsthat we have here in south central Kansas,Allison notes. Im doing other things at thattime of the year, so it makes informationgathering more efcient for me. Plus, it takestime to get these reports back to the farmers.

Getting soil information early allows growerstime to look at fertilizer costs and gives themmore options on how they want to spend their

money on the next years crop, he adds.The high cost of fertilizers and the current good prices of graicrops make it critical for growers to maximize their inputs to getmaximum value from their crops. Crop Quest agronomists, backthe Crop Quest network, are dedicated to providing the best soil ity information possible to make growers management decisionmost protable.

Farrell A

Crop Quest Expands Into Wisconsin


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Member, National Allianceof Independent Crop

Consultants, CPCC-ICertied

By: Ron OHanloPresident

Over the past few years, fertilizer enhancement products andadditives have been promoted as a way of reducing fertilizer cost,especially with the fertilizer price increases we have seen recently.Most of these products claim to improve yield while reducing thecost of applied fertilizer, but all we have to go by is the glossy bro-chures printed about their products and the testimonials. We also

have to weigh the cost of the product versus the fertilizer saved orthe yield improved.

In the latest Kansas Fertilizer Research 2008 Report of Prog-ress, a couple of studies by Kansas State University looked atsome of these additives or fertilizer enhancement products andreported on their results. (I would point out that the testing hasbeen limited and different conditions exist across the High Plainsthat could show different results with additional studies.)

One study involved phosphorus fertilizer enhancement prod-ucts on corn. The two products studied were AVAIL (a enhanceradded to phosphorus fertilizer to reduce xation by aluminumand calcium) and JumpStart (a seed inoculant that increasesavailability of native soil phosphorus to plant roots). At the threesites tested, initial preplant soil tests indicated low availablephosphorus at all locations, and a phosphorus response would be

expected. The results showed a signicant response on two of thethree locations that had only phosphorus applied. One of the threesites showed JumpStart had a signicant increase in yield whenno phosphorus was applied, but JumpStart showed no response

when phosphorus was applied. Thestudy also showed no response withthe use of AVAIL. Even with thelimited demonstration testing byCrop Quest agronomists, we have notseen a signicant response to AVAIL.

In another study, K-State looked atthe use of thiosulfates (e.g. ammoniumthiosulfate) with UAN solutions to reducenitrogen loss and enhance nitrogen use efcien-cy in no-till corn and sorghum. There are purported claims thathiosulfates prevent ammonia-N volatilization losses by stabilizUAN solutions especially in high-residue systems like no-till. Tresults showed that adding thiosulfates did not improve performance of surface-applied UAN.

None of these limited studies show that these products are jua bunch of hooey, but they certainly indicate a person shouldproceed with caution until more research can verify whether thtruly do result in the benets they are purported to have. Testinials are good when you are trying to sell a product, but it takevalid research to get a better handle on whether that product i

worth the investment for your farming system.Visit with your Crop Quest agronomists if you have questionabout whether a product would be benecial for use on your fa

FERTILIZER ADDITIVES!

Dwight Koops

Seed Treatments

DO THEY WORK?

A large majority of the winter wheat

crop is planted without the use of anyseed treatments. But seed treatmentscan be a valuable tool to insure a good

consistent stand, and maintain plant health,especially early in the life

of the crop. Anytime you can get a crop off to agood start, you help maintain the yield potential ofthat crop.

Why should I use a seed treatment?Seed treatments are either fungicides, insecti-

cides, or a combination of the two. It is importantto identify the need to use them. Applying aninsecticide to the seed will protect the young plantfrom pests such as wireworm, grubs, and maggots.

Some of the seed insecticides are systemic, andcan protect the plants from aphids and other pests.If you can control early aphid problems, you canreduce the incidences of Barley Yellow DwarfMosaic. It is also possible to suppress Hessian y infestations withsome insecticides.

If your concern is diseases, especially seed-borne diseases likeloose smut, common bunt, or scab, a fungicide seed treatment canbe very valuable. Most seed fungicides are systemic. They can alsocontrol early season rust and mildew problems.

Are there certain situations that require a seed treatmentmore than others?

Whether you are planting early or late, there are reasons to use aseed treatment. Insect activity is still quite high early in the planting

season. As the soils cool, or conditions are too wet, there is a chan

delayed emergence. Both these situations will benet from protectthe seed from both insects and diseases. Cool, damp conditions enage root rots and pythium. If you are planting in continuous wheatelds, there are more pathogens present. It is more necessary to pr

the seed and young plantfrom disease in continuowheat.

Will it pay to invest ttime and money intotreating the seed?

Whenever a producerdecides to spend money oa crop, they would like toget a return. The cost of t

seed treatments should becouple bushel or less. This no guarantee, but anytiyou can protect yield pot

tial early in the season, and attain more consistent stands and betteearly vigor, you will most likely see a return on your investment. Mseed treatments require a little extra equipment and time to apply tPlan ahead so you dont disrupt the time you need to spend on youtractor getting the crop planted.

If you have problems with soil-borne or seed-borne diseases sucas loose smut, bunt, or scab, seed treatments are almost essential.

Evaluate your situation, and I encourage you to visit with yourCrop Quest Agronomist to see which seed treatment is best foryour operation.

Seed Treatment Insecticide Or Fungicide

Apron Fungicide

Charter Fungicide

Cruiser 5FS Insecticide

Cruiser Maxx Fungicide & Insecticide

Dividend Fungicide

Gaucho XT Fungicide & Insecticide

Raxil MD Fungicide

Raxil MD-W Fungicide & Insecticide

Some More Popular Seed Treatments

Are A Good Investment


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Mission StatementCrop Quest is an employee-owned company dedicated to providing the highest quality agricultural services for each customer. The quest of our network

professionals is to practice integrity and innovation to ensure our services are economically and environmentally sound.

PRSRT STD

US POSTAGE

PAID

DODGE CITY K

PERMIT NO. 43

Employee-Owned & Customer DrivenCrop Quest Agronomic Services, Inc.

Main Ofce: Phone 620.225.2233

Fax 620.225.3199

Internet: www.cropquest.com

[email protected]

Crop Quest Board of Directors President: Ron OHanlon

Director: Jim Gleason

Director: Dwight Koops

Director: Cort Minor

Director: Chris McInteer

Director: Rob Benyshek

Crop Quest has been very active in testing and using GreenSeekertechnology in the southern areas of Oklahoma and is now moving the use ofthis technology into Kansas. Oklahoma State University has been using andadapting this technology in wheat and other crops for over 10 years now, andKansas State University is adapting it to the cropping systems seen in Kansas.This year, Crop Quest has been working with some dryland grain sorghumproducers in South Central Kansas using this technology in addition to someof the calculations and work done by the Agronomy Department at KSU.

The idea behind the GreenSeeker technology is to use an NDVI reading(which the GreenSeeker unit gives), at a specic growth stage of the crop, sothat the grower has a better idea of how much nitrogen to sidedress the cropwith in order to achieve the maximum economic yield.

By putting nitrogen- rich strips in the eld (10 ft. to 20 ft. wide strips inthe eld where 125% of total nitrogen needs are put down), the GreenSeekerunit reads differences between these strips and the rest of the eld to deter-mine optimum nitrogen rates to sidedress with.

Some of the growers that Crop Quest have worked with this year havehad the opportunity to save as much as 60 units of nitrogen per acre on theirdryland sorghum. At an approximate price of $.40 per unit of nitrogen, thattranslates into a $24 per acre savings on the sorghum crop.

GreenSeeker use has successfully shown high yields and lower nitrogencost when used to select top dress nitrogen rates for wheat production. Onfarming operations in the four-state area of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas andLouisiana, GreenSeeker was widely used by Crop Quest Agronomists, asdirected by Oklahoma State University recommendations, to select the mosteconomical nitrogen rate for wheat in 2009.

In general, GreenSeeker selected rates were 35 lbs. to 40 lbs. of nitrogen

lower than that generally used by crop producers in the four-state area. Thisis a farming area where one generally expects to see yields in the 60 bu. to 90bu. range every year. Most growers have used 90 lbs. to 120 lbs. of total ni-trogen in wheat production to reach those yield levels. At these nitrogen rates,growers often see signicant to excessive lodging in the wheat crop.

In the 2009 wheat crop, Crop Agronomists Tim Sharp and Joel Baskettbegan the process to utilize GreenSeeker by applying two to four nitrogen-

rich strips with 150 lbs. of nitrogen in 10 foot strips across the entire eld.These strips were put out in the early vegetative stage of wheat growth. Thfarmers had applied 30 lbs. of nitrogen at wheat planting. In early jointingSharp and Baskett evaluated the N-Rich strips with the GreenSeeker sensoby driving a 4-wheeler with a sensor mounted on the front of the 4-wheelethe correct height above the crop. Each of the strips was sensed and geocowith SiteMate eld GPS software along with a pass over the grower standnon-N-Rich strip. The geocoded computer le was then used to calculate taverage NDVI for each strip. This data along with the planting date and seing date were entered into the Oklahoma State University Nitrogen Use Eciency web site to obtain the nitrogen recommendation for the wheat elThe nitrogen recommendations were then applied by the growers to each

producers wheat elds. Large scale test trials were conducted on one farmoperation with yield monitors on their combines. One control farm was maged the old way and the remaining elds were managed with GreenSeekrecommendations.

When the wheat was harvested, the check farm had been applied with 1lbs. of nitrogen and had a yield average of 65 bu. per acre. The GreenSeekelds had respective yields of 70, 66, 58, 70, 79, 55, and a water damagedacre eld. These were resulting from respective nitrogen rates of 60, 60, 575, 101, 80 and 75 lbs. per acre. Upon visual inspection, the elds with theGreenSeeker rate recommendations exhibited little lodging while check with the higher standard nitrogen rates were exhibiting signicant lodging

The use of GreenSeeker by Crop Quest agronomists resulted in signiccash savings to the growers involved. Nitrogen use rates were reduced by lbs. for a savings of $11.70 at $.30 per pound of nitrogen. Wheat yields weequal to or better than the check farm where 110 lbs. of nitrogen was used

The GreenSeeker can be used to make variable rate application maps ormake a single recommendation for the eld. It can also be used in irrigatedcrops. Research has been done in irrigated corn, sorghum and wheat.

We feel that there has been enough research done to show that there isindeed an opportunity to make more efcient nitrogen applications. The

job now is to see how the technology can t growers and their situation,Sharp says.

BENEFITS AND APPLICATIONS OF

GREENSEEKER TECHNOLOGY

CQ Perspectives Sep 2009

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