Farmers Consider Fertilizer Decisions With Mild Weather, Early Spring

By Russ Quinn

The mild winter and perhaps an early arrival of spring has Midwestern farmers mulling over their fertilizer decisions in March when soils are usually still frozen.

Experts urge farmers to take this extra time to test their soils to make sure fertilizer is really needed. With a warmer and dry winter, fertilizer losses could be somewhat limited.

EARLY FERTILIZER APPLICATIONS

In a podcast titled "University of Minnesota Nutrient Management Podcast Episode: Spring fertilizer outlook: Key decisions after a warm winter" (https://nutrientmanagement.transistor.fm/…), four University of Minnesota Extension nutrient management specialists discussed some key decisions farmers should consider after the mild winter the state of Minnesota saw this winter.

Warmer conditions have led to less snow cover and farmers will be able to get into the field sooner across the state. This is even true for northern Minnesota, which often sees winter hang on strong through March.

With an early spring looking to be a decent possibility, much discussion was centered upon what options farmers have applying fertilizer in early spring.

Fabian Fernandez, a University of Minnesota Extension nutrient management specialist based in St. Paul, said normally in the spring much of the state sees an extremely wet situation and this would be when you lose nitrogen. Denitrification happens when the soil is saturated, and you see water standing in the field.

This may not be a problem in the spring of 2024.

"I suspect that we will not see a lot of potential for loss (this spring), Fernandez said.

Farmers still need to be cautious when applying fertilizer this early in the spring, he said.

WHAT N FORM

Fernandez said anhydrous ammonia would be the preferred choice for a nitrogen source this early in the spring. And then urea would be the next choice followed by some dry sources, but you want to stay away from anything with UAN, considering 25% of that nitrogen is already nitrate.

He has some questions about applying anhydrous in March and whether a nitrogen inhibitor should be applied with the nitrogen fertilizer. Fernandez said if farmers are considering applying anhydrous in mid-March, an inhibitor is probably a good investment.

"I would say yeah this spring if you're planning to go now sometime in mid-March through early April, that would be a situation where you might consider using an inhibitor because it will protect nitrogen longer," he said.

Lindsay Peace, a University of Minnesota Extension nutrient and water management specialist at the Northwest Research and Outreach Center in Crookston, said it is unusual for northwest Minnesota to be able to apply fertilizer before planting. Various research from the Eastern Corn Belt has shown applying nitrogen as close to planting helps to maximize your return on what you are applying.