Crazy Day

It's two more crazy days here before the rain hits again. More beans and corn are gone. The fertilizer man was real happy to see me this morning with checkbook in hand, too happy in fact.

I have some fields that call for 200 MAP and 200 Potash plus ammonium sulfate, zinc and boron and you get $200 per acre in dry fertilizer in these fields! That's a lot of money to me but I own them so I will never meet my yield goals if I don't follow my soil test recommendations.

I did a good job probing those fields and feel confident with the recommendations. The farm I spread 2 tons of high calcium lime on last fall actually went DOWN a little in pH which means little to me but calcium level went up and I had a good crop on it. It is there and will be released the more I farm it the next few years.

Think about it, if I spread the materials on top they only moved an inch or two in the profile. If I am probing 12 inches deep, the product amount is diluted in my sample. I would have to probe 3 inches deep to find the product applied and the data wouldn't mean much to me. I have done that before and only do it when I am looking for stratification of nutrients. I know I have them here as I did it that way. Each crop will get more of that product as the soil chemistry changes with the biology.

The phone is ringing off the hook so I will try to write more later. Please post comments and questions. I will be so glad when election day is over tomorrow so I don't have to sort good calls from bad.

Ed