Soil test results! Wow you fert dealers won't be screwing us in 2013!

[ado089]

Lets also not forget that the same
conditions needed for a bumper crop are
the same conditions that are going to
result in something along the line of
20-30 lbs/ac more N release from organic
matter on soils with 5% OM. That can
get even higher if the previous year had unfavorable conditions for your soil
bugs and nutrient cycling was impeded.
I bet your agronomist and retailer don't
tell you that.

In the good old days of 50-75 lbs/ac N
application applying the same rate every
year somewhat regulated it's self with
the ups and down in the weather. With
higher rates being applied if you're not
sampling and trusting the results and if
you're not doing some mental math on
release rates compared to last years
crop you are either wasting money or
setting yourself up for a lodged, late
crop.

As for the NH3 question, I would worry
far less about loss during application,
it takes very little moisture to fix
NH3. Most losses come from the two weeks
of saturated soil we normally see
following thaw and snow-melt. Standing
water is far worse for N loss than
leaching, this becomes even more aggravated in high pH soils.

[Jay-mo]

Soil tests have historically showed high sulfur.This year again. I have been putting down around 10lb/a. every year anyway just to be safe. However I'm wondering if anyone sees any yield bump applying sulfur even when soil tests are adequate to high? Thinking I may not put any down next year.

[makar]

Even the soil testing experts will tell you sulfer is a poor test. My land tests high in sulfer, put none no canola.

[SASKFARMER3]

Ours says o to 10 well it will get 10 to 15. Crops
love sulphur.

[HappyFarmer]

Jaymo
It's common to have high sulfur readings after a
wet summer, and then a long hot dry spell in
August/September. What happens is as the
ground drys up, you sulfur that has leached with
the rain will attract to you soluble salts in your
subsoil, and be carried to the surface, hence
showing large amounts on you soil test. Problem
is its not plant available. I would say that if you
had a wet summer, dry aug,sept. probably should
keep putting sulfur on.

[SASKFARMER3]

Our anhydrous bill will be 10 to 20 lbs less
ammonia. On all acres.

[Choice2U]

Bmbg re NH3...Your nose can detect 1 ppm which is equivalent to 1/16" on a mile. 300 - 400 ppm (3-4 ft/mile) can kill you. Point is...even a very strong smell and the poofing you see behind the shanks is probably a very small percentage of what you are putting on. When I was in the fert industry, I used to have an NH3 test kit which detected hydroxyl ions in the soil allowing one to see where the NH3 affinity to water was taking place. A client by Cupar was concerned about gasing off one fall (dry conditions on heavy soil) and I used the kit to show him. As soon as he saw the bright pink circle the size of a dime with no pink towards the surface of the trench, his concern was gone. Those kits may still be around which can really ease one's mind in dry conditions.

[bobofthenorth]

Sorry bgmb - I wasn't ignoring you, I just hadn't been back on here for a while. I think Choice2U has pretty well nailed it - if you can walk behind the cultivator you LIKELY don't have significant losses. I don't think anyone can really quantify what the exact losses are but if the dog running behind the cultivator doesn't turn up his toes its likely acceptable losses.

As far as S soil testing goes, don't bother. Les Henry did some work many years ago now by Choiceland - on Joe Pender's land if I remember correctly. As I recall they did 160 cores, 1 per acre gridded on a 1/4 section and the results varied from something like 1 ppm to over 1000 ppm. On the average, the samples showed more than adequate available sulphur but most of the grids were deficient. How can that be? Sulphur is bound as gypsum in our soils. If the test core happens to get one granule of gypsum on the whole field then your average test will be adequate, despite the fact that every single other core may be severely deficient. Unless you are prepared to grid sample for sulphur you're wasting your time - just put on S for canola regardless and if you've ever seen S-deficiency then you likely should put 3-5 pounds on cereals as well.

[Jay-mo]

Thanks for the advice on the sulfur. Likely will stick with my usual application, especially on canola.