Soil specialist says farmers could easily improve fertilizer efficiency by changing rates between fields of the same crop
Most prairie farmers don’t change their fertilizer rates between fields of the same crop, a survey has revealed.
While “astounding,” Manitoba Agriculture soil specialist John Heard said it means that farmers could easily improve their fertilizer efficiency.
“A lot of them are probably just running with a wheat blend and a canola blend type of thing,” said Heard, who admitted he was surprised that only 25 percent of Manitoba farmers told Stratus Ag Research that they change their fertilizer rates between different fields of the same crop. Only 21 percent of Alberta farmers answering the survey said they change rates, while 18 percent of Saskatchewan farmers said they employ different rates field to field.
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Soil structure and moisture conditions often differ substantially between different quarter sections, so farmers hoping for the least wasteful use of fertilizer would be expected to alter fertilizer rates based upon those conditions.
The fact they don’t suggests much crop fertility is being done poorly, something that could hurt yields and cause higher emissions from cropland.
Since there is growing pressure on farmers to cut fertilizer emissions, the suggestion that one of the main elements of 4R fertilizing is not being practised by three-quarters of farmers means it would be easy for farmers to quickly reduce some of their emissions from farmland.
There is also little uptake so far in nitrification inhibitors, which also appear to offer a simple way to reduce emissions. That means much “low-hanging fruit” is still available for reducing emissions.
However, the situation isn’t so promising for the 17 percent of Manitoba farmers who say they use variable rate technology and the 25 percent who already change their fertilizer rates field by field.
For them, much of the low-hanging fruit has already been plucked, making it hard for them to slash emissions by 30 percent from today.
“A lot of farmers are already doing these good things,” said Heard.
“That’s what makes it hard for them to do 30 percent better than they’re already doing.”
