Don Pulfer used to rely on conventional soil testing to help him decide how much fertilizer to apply to his crops each year.
But he found that the testing had its limits. That became especially evident in 1998, when soil testing was telling the veterinarian and farmer from Weyburn, Sask., that he didn’t need to add nitrogen to his soils.
“We continuous crop here,” said Pulfer, who grows grains and oilseeds. “If I would have followed that recommendation that year, I probably would have gone broke.”
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Pulfer decided to take a different approach to measuring the nutrients in his soil.
He hired the services of Western Ag Labs Ltd. in Saskatoon, a company on the leading edge of technology that helps growers plan their fertilizer needs.
“I was very disappointed with traditional soil testing,” said Pulfer. “I was looking for something else and this technology seemed to make a lot of sense.”
Western Ag Labs uses what it calls the PRS (plant root simulating) Nutrient Forecaster, a probe that helps predict how much nutrient the topsoil will release to a crop during the growing season.
The company has developed Forecaster software to predict how the release of the nutrients will change according to different growing conditions, crop types and soil conditions.
Together, the PRS probe and the computer software give the grower information to help calculate what nutrients should be added to the topsoil through fertilization.
Company president Ken Greer calls it crop nutrition planning.
“After three years in this business, we have clients who don’t buy fertilizer, don’t set their drill, don’t make a move until they have it planned out using this tool.”
Information about fertilizer costs can be punched into the computer program along with expected yields and price expectations for the crop. That allows the grower to explore what amount of fertilizer will give optimum yields, but it also offers a better sense of how much fertilizer will give the best economic return. In others words, costs and benefits can be weighed against one another.
Pulfer continues to use the services of Western Ag Labs. On a farm that spends $60,000 a year on fertilizer, knowing how much to apply is important.
“I don’t mind spending money on fertilizer, but I don’t like spending it needlessly.”
He pays $1.50 per acre for the services of Western Ag Labs but considers it money well spent.
Among the benefits was the discovery that he could grow barley. The PRS Nutrient Forecaster showed there was high calcium in his soils. The calcium was tying up potash so that it was not available to the plants.
With that knowledge, Pulfer began applying potash to his fields and saw a 30 percent increase in his barley yields.
“That’s a huge difference there for a few dollars spent.”
The idea for the PRS Nutrient Forecaster came from Jeff Schoenau, a senior research scientist at the University of Saskatchewan.
Schoenau invented the PRS probe, which has a special membrane allowing it to absorb nutrients in the soil in much the same way a plant’s roots do.
Western Ag Labs commercialized the probe, which is patented by the U of S, and named it the PRS Nutrient Forecaster.
The device is placed in topsoil for 24 hours and gauges the uptake of nitrate, phosphate, potassium and sulfate, as well as several micronutrients in the soil.
The grower helps decide where in the field the probe will be placed. The goal is to find a location that offers a benchmark of the nutrients available in the field’s topsoil.
The information provided by the probe on nutrient uptake is then fed into the Forecaster computer program. Factors like the field’s soil acidity, soil density, available water and growing degree days are also included so that the service is tailored to individual farms and fields.
Western Ag Labs employs 20 field services representatives in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba who gather data using the probes and then work with growers to develop their crop nutrition plans.
Greer said the probes are placed in fields in either fall or spring. He considers fall the ideal time because it gives growers more time to weigh fertilizer and crop options before spring planting.
The software also allows growers to look back on the crop year and critique their fertilizing decisions.
“That’s the power of that tool,” said Ken Panchuk, a Saskatchewan Agriculture soil specialist.
“Once the year is done, what’s your scorecard? Did you make the right decisions with regards to soil fertility?”
Panchuk described the nutrient forecasting technology as a major breakthrough when compared to traditional soil testing.
He sees several benefits to the technology, including the potential savings of targeting for optimum yields.
“People like to have a little more control and I think the software gives them that.”
Panchuk sees an environmental benefit as well, since the technology lessens the chance of overapplying nutrients.
But he said it is still the grower who must make the final management decisions about what crops to grow and how much fertilizer to apply.
Pulfer also called the nutrient forecasting “a huge step forward” over standard soil testing.
“I’m not saying the program is making all my decisions but it sure is helping us make better ones.
“Two years doesn’t make a program, but I’m gaining confidence in it. It helps us fine-tune our fertilizer needs.”
