All substance and no flash might best describe the fertilizer strategy Clark Riemer is banking on to fuel his 2025 corn crop.
If a nutrient or supporting input won't pay its way next season, Riemer has already eliminated it from his budget. The harder decisions, he says, have been around figuring out what the corn crop absolutely has to have nutrient-wise to reach his yield goals with some potential for a return on investment.
"We had a whole-farm yield average of 225 bu. per acre last season, our best year ever," says Riemer, who farms near Kewaunee, Wis., east of Green Bay. "With the bad weather this year, we'll be lucky to average 190 bu., but I believe we have the ability to average 250-bu. corn, which is what I'm shooting for in the next decade."
Furthermore, Riemer has every intention of setting his farm up for success long term so his 15-year-old son, Kenneth, who farms with him now, has the opportunity to take over the operation someday.
With those long-term goals in mind, Riemer is bearing down on all input costs in the short term, especially fertilizer.
"We have to figure out how to survive the next year or two and, hopefully, we'll get through this," he says. "I'm trying to make every dollar I spend pay for itself."
Here are five ways Riemer is building his fertility plan for next season and laying the framework for the future.
1. Make balanced decisions.
That requires thinking through various nutrient scenarios and allowing time for reflection and evaluation of potential outcomes, Riemer explains. "Fertility decisions for next season will potentially impact my soils and yields for several years from now," he says. "As best I can, I will continue using the 4Rs, the right rate, right time, and so forth, but I know I have to cut back, given the price of corn."
2. Examine soil tests to find fields with higher nutrient levels.
"I expect to dip into my nutrient bank account and write some checks to pay for this next crop," he says.
Riemer, who strip tills, normally applies triple superphosphate in the fall, but it won't make the cut this year. Soil tests are a little on the high side for phosphorus.
He also considered cutting fall-applied potash entirely, but decided against it. "Potash is a key factor for drought tolerance, standability and the cell wall structures of the plant," he explains. "We have lighter soil, and I believe with the lower organic matter we have some leaching, so we need that nutrient."
Riemer's compromise is to use a reduced rate of potash across all acres. "I'm trimming it back to 100 lb. instead of the 150 lb. I usually apply," he says.
3. Use management zones to reduce fertilizer rates.
Management zones help Riemer identify areas within fields where fertilizer rates can be tweaked. It takes a lot of effort to micromanage acres, he acknowledges, but it can save you a lot of money.
Farm Journal Field Agronomist Isaac Ferrie likes that Riemer uses management zones to identify how to reduce fertility levels without creating a negative impact on yield.
"Once you go through the process, you might see instead of cutting $15 of fertilizer across the board, it could be more economical to cut $30 on one field and nothing on another field because you don't have the fertility there to give up," says Ferrie with Crop-Tech Consulting.
Budget a specific dollar amount for fertilizer, encourages Stephanie Zelinko, national agronomist for AgroLiquid, and then adjust as needed. From evaluating historical data, she says growers usually invest 16% to 20% of their anticipated income from a corn crop on fertilizer. She offers this example:
"Say we expect to grow a 200-bu.-per-acre corn crop and make $5 a bushel. That's $1,000 of income per acre," Zelinko says. "Twenty percent of that is $200, and that would be my starting point for a fertility budget."
4. Communicate regularly with retailers and other advisers.
A significant win-win for Riemer is locking in fertilizer prices and products with his retailer in the fall but having some flexibility on when the final bill is paid.
"That helps my retailer, and it helps me avoid putting the bill on my operating loan and paying that high interest," he says.
Ferrie encourages farmers to stick with their trusted advisers. "Stay dialed in with the ones who have partnered with you in better financial times," he says. "Continue to harness their knowledge and weigh their insights on fertility and other agronomic decisions to help you get through this tough season."
5. Evaluate application timing for nutrients.
Riemer says he will adjust the timing and products if such changes are practical and can help financially. One thing he won't do is make any fall applications of anhydrous ammonia because he doesn't want to take a chance of putting it down nine months in advance and then losing it before the crop has a chance to use it. Instead, Riemer will focus his dollars and efforts as much as possible on in-season fertility. With nitrogen, for example, he will make preplant, at planting and sidedress applications, but he won't broadcast anything.
His corn-on-corn ground will get 300 lb. per acre of ammonium sulfate preplant. Corn after soybeans will get 200 lb. of AMS per acre upfront. Both corn crops will get 30 units of nitrogen per acre in the starter. All corn will get a sidedress application of nitrogen with urea when it's about the height of a pop can.
Kelly Robertson, a certified crop adviser and owner of Precision Crop Services, Benton, Ill., offers one concern about farmers opting to focus on in-season fertilizer use.
"If everybody waits until spring, I'm concerned a lot of it's not going to get on," Robertson said during a recent Illinois Soybean Association podcast. "Retail does not have the capacity, the trucking and infrastructure to do it all in the spring. We need to think through not just the economic side but also the logistics implications of getting products applied."
