Choosing to go with a fall-banded application of anhydrous ammonia this year or wait until spring is a tough decision.
Apart from the obvious advantages of spreading out some of the workload, the other major consideration of cost is impossible to predict.
Anhydrous ammonia is typically cheaper in fall, but with commodity markets looking like a dog’s breakfast these days, whether prices will hold, plunge or go higher is anybody’s guess.
For nervous types, maybe the best option is to wait and fertilize in spring. If on the wrong end of a price swing, at least you can console yourself that you chose what many experts say is the most efficient option.
Read Also
VIDEO: Green Lightning and Nytro Ag win sustainability innovation award
Nytro Ag Corp and Green Lightning recieved an innovation award at Ag in Motion 2025 for the Green Lightning Nitrogen Machine, which converts atmospheric nitrogen into a plant-usable form.
“The ideal time is spring application, close to seeding,” said Sukhdev Malhi, an Agriculture Canada researcher in Melfort, Sask.
Production constraints that make spreading out some of the work during the slow season more appealing often swing the balance in favour of fall application, he added.
“If you apply in the spring near seeding, or at the time of seeding, so long as it does not cause any damage to the seedling, that’s the best time,” said Malhi.
“Nothing can compare with that.”
In most years, the other major consideration is cost.
“There’s lots of speculation as to whether prices will be cheaper this fall versus next spring, but I have no idea which way that one’s going,” said Blair McClinton, executive manager of the Saskatchewan Soil Conservation Association at Indian Head.
McClinton has seen some fall banding in his area, but noted that the practice is not as common as it once was in Saskatchewan.
In recent years, dealership capacity in the province has grown, and even manufacturers and suppliers have adjusted their schedules to cater to spring application, he added.
“Most people are set up to do applications at seeding time as part of their direct seeding systems. However, there certainly are people who change their mind every year as to whether they are going to use anhydrous or not,” he said.
“But there’s a lot of people who chose to use urea or liquid formulations. They may buy early and store it, but it’s not really practical to do that with anhydrous, of course.”
With soil moisture levels fairly high across much of the Prairies, the risk that some of that nitrogen might be wasted is not high, added McClinton.
“You want enough moisture so that the anhydrous will bind with the soil. Pure ammonia doesn’t stick to anything, but it does react with water which binds it with the soil particles.”
Soil must be extremely dry for leakage to occur, but the other concern is that the furrows in some wet heavy clays might not close completely, leading to gas losses.
For those not doing zero-till, the potential for losses or leakage could be cancelled out by the creation of better seedbed conditions with fall banding because the snowmelt tends to smooth out surface roughness, he added.
Guy Lafond, an Agriculture Canada researcher at Indian Head, Sask., said that with 60 percent of acres in the province in zero-till, most of the fertilizer used goes down in one pass at seeding time.
“If you rate fall banding as 100, then spring banding is 120,” said Lafond.
“There is more efficiency to be gained, and when you’re looking at a high priced fertilizer, it’s probably better to put it on in the spring or as close to seeding as possible.”
In Manitoba, where no-till and minimum till adoption is much lower at roughly 20 percent, according to the latest figures from Statistics Canada, a fall anhydrous application makes more sense than spending $100,000 on a new direct seeder system, said Cynthia Grant, a soil fertility management specialist at Agriculture Canada’s research centre in Brandon.
In the heavy soils of the Red River Valley, where too much moisture is often more of a problem than too little, going no-till does not always make sense.
Under the right conditions such as cold, well-drained soils, fall banded anhydrous can be efficient, she said, and that’s why many Manitoba farmers choose it over other options.
Some studies have shown that, when considering the whole farm management picture, fall applied anhydrous ammonia can offer better yields than spring applied fertilizer.
“All the market signals are indicating that it should be going down, but who the hell knows?” said Grant with a laugh. “I’m just a humble agronomist.”
