Research is Looking at Nutrient Uptake

Researchers at the University of Illinois are Looking at Nutrient Uptake in modern hybrids according to an article in Prairie Farmer, Nutrient Recommendations Are Outdated For Today's Hybrids. It always concerns me to see nutrient research that raises fertility issues, but does not state existing nutrient levels.  One reason we soil test is to see if nutrient levels are adequate to produce a good crop.  In fact our philosophy is to make sure that nutrient levels higher than adequate.  As you can see from the article, that nutrient uptake varies through the growing season. What they don't tell you is that soil nutrient levels vary during the growing season as well because of such factors as soil moisture and microbial activity.  We want to make sure that available nutrient levels can be sustained even when conditions are not ideal.  One of the things we saw on a common basis last year was that plants were showing potassium deficiency because of drought.  If we want to avoid that we need to make sure we maintain fairly high levels of potassium. 

A couple of other things that the researchers and the article seems to support are the need for frequent soil tests and the value of testing for micro-nutrients.  It also supports the need to apply adequate fertilizer for all crops regardless if it is applied yearly or every other year.  Frequent soil testing is needed in order to take the guesswork out of fertilizer application.  We want to sample every year and every other year is the minimum.