Extra fertilizer efficiency could have a big impact on profitability, particularly if crop prices soften.
“We need to make fertilizer efficiency work to our advantage,” said Darren Bond, a Manitoba Agriculture farm management specialist who spoke during a Jan. 4 grain information day in Clandeboye.
“When fertilizer prices started to spike up, because the grain prices outran them, fertilizer was actually still affordable,” Bond said. “We’ve seen [crop prices] softening off… you haven’t seen equal representative softening of fertilizer prices.
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“We need a recalibration of finding out where our profits are.”
Some profit may be found in increased fertilizer efficiency, Bond said. Generally, a 20 per cent gain in efficiency can be expected if nitrogen application is switched to banding from broadcasting. In other words, 80 pounds of nitrogen equivalent could be banded instead of 100 lb. broadcasted.
Bond estimates this could save more than $20 per acre.
Phosphorus and potassium have more dramatic gains, he said. Switching to banding from broadcasting can provide 50 per cent more efficiency, a savings of more than $40 per acre, in his example.
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Bond said he has personal experience with the efficiencies of banding over broadcasting.
In spring 2022, he was applying 85 lb. of nitrogen in mid-row banders to a wheat field when he ran out in the wee hours of the morning.
With a short seeding season, he was anxious to start seeding canola later so he decided to broadcast the remainder of the nitrogen later. After emergence, he broadcasted the same rate with a urease inhibitor.
While not a scientific study, Bond said, the combine’s yield monitor showed significantly more yield consistency in the banded areas. The section with broadcast yielded nearly seven bushels per acre less for a $75 per acre loss.
Fertilizer efficiencies may become even more crucial if crop prices soften. Manitoba Ag data shows prices have been on a downward trend since early last summer.
There is often a lag between a drop in grain prices and a corresponding softening of inputs, Bond said. He worries prices will lag for an entire production cycle but described new crop prices as decent so far.
