SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NCERA_old13 : Soil Testing and Plant Analysis
- Period Covered: 10/01/2016 to 09/30/2017
- Date of Report: 12/20/2017
- Annual Meeting Dates: 11/14/2017 to 11/15/2017
Participants
Frank Casey, North Dakota State University, Administrator NCERA-13 Antonio Mallarino, Iowa State Univ. Chair, Iowa rep David Franzen, North Dakota State Univ. Recording Secretary, ND rep Renuka Mathur, Iowa State Univ., visitor Anthony Bly, South Dakota State Univ., SDSU rep David Karki, South Dakota State Univ., visitor Sakmi Subburayalu, Central State Univ., visitor Manjula Nathan, University of Missouri, Missouri rep Shiny Mathews, North Dakota State Univ., visitor Jim Camberato, Purdue, visitor Carrie Laboski, Univ. of Wisconsin, Wisconsin rep Dorivar Ruiz-Diaz, Kansas State Univ., Kansas rep Jon Dahl, Michigan State Univ., Michigan rep Dan Kaiser, Univ. of Minnesota, Minnesota rep Andrew Stammer, Kansas State Univ., visitor Steve Culman, The Ohio State Univ., Ohio rep Bijesh Maharjan, Univ. of Nebraska, Nebraska rep
Accomplishments
Short-term
Farmers and ag-industry professionals learn about soil testing and recommendations to farmers and ag-industry professionals in the North Central Region.
Outputs
State recommendations are updated regularly and soil testing/plant analysis themes are woven into presentations by member faculty.
Activities
A complete overhaul of fertilizer recommendations is in progress at North Dakota State University, and will be finished by Jan 1, 2018. Other institutions are continually assessing soil test calibration to make certain that current recommendations and soil testing/plant analysis methods support a high level of commercial agriculture, environmental stewardship and utility for site-specific nutrient application.
Milestone
A circular will be published in 2018 and available on the web to explain deficiencies in the soil testing method interpretations for soil sulfur availability to corn and other crops.
Impacts
- Modernization of North Dakota nutrient recommendations There have been two important changes to North Dakota fertilizer recommendations. The first is the end of yield-based nutrient recommendations. First reported by researchers at Oklahoma State University about 15 years ago, then incorporated in the ‘return to N’ models adopted by Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio about 10 years ago, nitrogen rate is not related to yield between sites. Recent work in North Dakota has also found that eliminating yield goal as a factor in nitrogen, phosphorus and other plant nutrient recommendations was important in building a more environmentally friendly and profitable recommendation system. Changes in all crop nutrient recommendations will be completed about January 1, 2018. This will result in greater farm profitability as farmers realize that the same fertilizer rate necessary to produce an average yield will also produce the highest possible yield in a more favorable year controlled by amount of precipitation, precipitation timing, and favorable growing season temperatures. In addition, the potassium response of corn was related to soil test results in North Dakota, but only if the ratio of smectitic clay to illite clay chemistry was considered. In a two-tiered recommendation, with the smectite/illite ration of 3.5 considered as critical, higher ratio soils require a higher soil test compared with soils with a lower ratio. Following these new recommendations will produce up to 30 bushels per acre more corn in a dry summer compared to following the old potassium soil test recommendations, and will result in more reasonable potassium fertilizer rates and a more profitable potassium fertilizer input system.