New Purdue Extension Publication Offers Farmers Tips On Phosphorus Application

Oct 23, 2015

By Chelsea Clodfelder

A new Purdue Extension publication offers Indiana farmers tips on phosphorus applications by focusing on four simple principles.

The publication, Tips for Environmentally Friendly Phosphorus Applications in Indiana, is intended to help farmers better understand how and when to apply phosphorus fertilizers to their fields in a way that isn’t damaging to the environment.

"The fast and simple approach, such as broadcast P fertilizer application, is not the best approach environmentally,” said co-author Tony Vyn. "The dissolved P in all P fertilizers is water soluble and can become an environmental hazard under certain weather conditions following application to the soil surface with no incorporation.”

The tips correspond to the “4R Principles,” which are specific to Corn Belt cropping systems of differing tillage and crop rotations:

P pub Right rate: Apply the correct rate of P fertilizers; test your soil, and only apply fertilizer where it’s needed.

Right source: Understand the amount of phosphorus that is in the fertilizer and account for the other nutrients it contains.
Right time: Applying P fertilizer at the wrong time can be detrimental to water quality, so avoid applying it just before a heavy rain is expected and consider split applications and immediate incorporation to reduce risks.
Right placement: Placement choices, such as broadcasting and shallow or deep banding, can affect the environment more than crop yield; tillage practices also can affect placement options.

Source:purdue.edu

Video: Spring 2026 weather outlook for Wisconsin; What an early-arriving El Niño could mean

Northeast Wisconsin is a small corner of the world, but our weather is still affected by what happens across the globe.

That includes in the equatorial Pacific, where changes between El Niño and La Niña play a role in the weather here -- and boy, have there been some abrupt changes as of late.

El Niño and La Niña are the two phases of what is collectively known as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO for short. These are the swings back and forth from unusually warm to unusually cold sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator.

Since this past September, we have been in a weak La Niña, which means water temperatures near the Eastern Pacific equator have been cooler than usual. That's where we're at right now.

Even last fall, the long-term outlook suggested a return to neutral conditions by spring and potentially El Niño conditions by summer.

But there are some signs this may be happening faster than usual, which could accelerate the onset of El Niño.

Over the last few weeks, unusually strong bursts of westerly winds farther west in the Pacific -- where sea surface temperatures are warmer than average -- have been observed. There is a chance that this could accelerate the warming of those eastern Pacific waters and potentially push us into El Niño sooner than usual.

If we do enter El Nino by spring -- which we'll define as the period of March, April and May -- there are some long-term correlations with our weather here in Northeast Wisconsin.

Looking at a map of anomalously warm weather, most of the upper Great Lakes doesn't show a strong correlation, but in general, the northern tiers of the United States do tend to lean to that direction.

The stronger correlation is with precipitation. El Niño conditions in spring have historically come with a higher risk of very dry weather over that time frame, so this will definitely be a transition we'll have to watch closely as we move out of winter.