Zone soil sampling has become a standard practice in precision nutrient management, but the grand question remains – How many zones should you be soil sampling? Well, it depends! It just makes sense that a field with more variability requires more zones than a field with little variability. Zone soil sampling separates parts of fields […]
Snowfall in late October and November slowed harvest and soil sampling across the region. This means some fields will be soil sampled in December and maybe January as harvest for late-season crops continues in the snow. The right equipment is the key to any project, and winter soil sampling is no different. AGVISE heavy-duty (HD) […]
The 2023 drought was an all-too-soon reminder of the widespread 2021 drought. It covered much of the upper Midwest, Great Plains, and Canadian Prairies. From previous experience with droughts, we expected that residual soil nitrate-N following crops would be higher than normal, caused by the drought and reduced crop yields. The first wheat fields that […]
This article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter For the past three years, we have seen severe and widespread soybean iron deficiency chlorosis (IDC) symptoms across the region. In fact, some seasoned agronomists have commented that 2022 was the worst soybean IDC year that they had experienced in decades. Soybean IDC is […]
This article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter John Breker was appointed to the North American Proficiency Testing Program Oversight Committee as the North Central Region representative, starting in January 2023. The North American Proficiency Testing (NAPT) Program assists soil, plant, and water laboratories with quality control and quality assurance through inter-laboratory […]
This article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Spring 2023 Newsletter If you thought high fertilizer prices would resolve after one or two years, it is looking like those prices are becoming the new norm. At such prices, every fertilizer dollar you spend must be spent to guarantee the best bang for each buck. This […]
Small grain harvest is well underway across the region, and soil testing is progressing quickly. Crop yields have varied from below average to exceeding expectations across the region and often in the same area. Planting date, summer temperatures, and rainfall (too little or too much) were major factors this year. The major factors influencing the […]
This article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Fall 2022 Newsletter Good crop prices encouraged late planting beyond crop insurance deadlines, but additional June rainfall kept some producers from planting all their acres, leaving some unplanted fields or unplanted parts of fields. There are many questions about soil testing on these unplanted fields: When should […]
Spring planting is clipping along in some parts of the region, while other parts are still waiting to hit the field, as excessive rainfall and cold temperatures have delayed spring field work and planting. Who would have thought last fall that this is what spring 2022 would look like, after the worst region-wide drought in […]
This article originally appeared in the AGVISE Laboratories Winter 2022 Newsletter Broadcast or band? For phosphorus and potassium, these are big fertilizer questions. In recent months, high fertilizer prices have prompted farmers and agronomists to consider other strategies to reduce fertilizer costs without jeopardizing crop yield. Among the most common and effective options is placing […]