What are you reading?

Joe Osterhaus, Sales Agronomist • August 20, 2018

I have been thinking about higher yields and what are the next possible breakthroughs in agriculture which will send yields climbing. I have also been thinking about the magazines we read in agriculture. The titles alone give us hope: Successful Farming, Top Producer, Progressive Farmer, Corn and Soybean Digest, Ag Professional, and CropLife magazines.

What does it take to be a successful farmer or a top producer? The easy answer is good fertile soils, timely planting of quality seed, no insects or disease pressure, good marketing, a whole lot of help from Mother Nature, and Prayers, Prayers and more Prayers. In reality it is a whole lot more complicated than that and that is why we read. What are the top farmers doing that I’m not? What do I need to implement into my operation?

The “Top Producers” are often “Progressive Farmers”. Most farmers know they need to be progressive or they will be left behind by technology. Many of the most progressive have an employee or son or daughter coming back to the farm totally dedicated to science and technology. These people have the task of keeping up as technology seemingly passes us by. So much is changing so fast that we have to decide which of these changes is going to give us the best return on investment for the most years before we change again. This requires understanding and forward thinking. Like it or not; farming is complicated.

That is why “Ag Professionals” have jobs. People dedicated to answering questions, developing ideas and determining which new ideas will pay off. Ag professionals are people who make crops their life. CropLife magazine recently did a story on NACHURS Liquid Fertilizer. NACHURS has been developing liquid fertilizers for 72+ years. Forward thinking and developing new ideas with our Bio-K, Rhyzo-Link (Biologicals), and Aqua-Tech (Fertigation) keep NACHURS at the forefront of the fertilizer industry. If you haven’t heard of the new fertilizers look them up at nachurs.com. Better yet call us, we’d be happy to answer your questions about how we can help raise yields.


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We are at the point in the year where things are slowing down around the farm and it is time to reflect on the season to remind ourselves what we learned. Over the last couple of weeks, the District Sales Managers and I have spent some time reflecting on what worked well in the field and the challenges we faced too. Here are the top 5 things we learned from 2024 growing season: #1 Split applying Nitrogen and Sulfur is a practice that should be embraced on a yearly basis when growing corn. Do you remember how the planting season started and what happened in the first 60 days after the planters started rolling? Our field conditions started out dry with some areas of the corn belt showing up on the drought map. Then mother nature blessed us with rain that never stopped in some areas making it difficult to finish planting. Growers that had split applied their Nitrogen and Sulfur were able to avoid nutrient loss from the rain but also apply the nutrients when the crop needed it most. In the end yield was better on split applied nitrogen fields compared to fields that had all the N applied in the fall or spring before planting. #2 For the past 2 seasons in the North region, we have seen the benefits of adding NACHURS Humi-Flex FA to the in-furrow starter fertilizer. NACHURS Humi-Flex FA is our fulvic acid and it is becoming a valuable component in our starter fertilizer for many reasons. We are using it to chelate the nutrients in the starter fertilizer especially phosphorus. Humi-Flex FA also buffers the soil pH to neutral in that nutrient band keeping nutrients available in fields that have less then optimal pH for crop growth. Finally, we use Humi-Flex FA to create a healthy soil microbiome that leads to more root mass and nutrient uptake. #3 Nutrient uptake charts for corn and soybeans have been a great tool for our team to help our customers visualize the crops nutrient needs based on timing during the growing season.
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