Fertilizer

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GIVE YOUR SOYBEANS A NEEDED BOOST

  It is now one year since the last blog on foliar feeding (check out that blog from last year) and a lot has been going on through out the world. There are some things in short supply, especially in the tech field. Commodity prices have the experts baffled. And...

Rolled Cereal Rye Field on 7/16/19 – John Viertel

Rolled Cereal Rye field on July 16, 2019 This is a general picture of the Rolled Cereal Rye field that we rolled and planted on June 4. There were no herbicides applied before or after planting. We depended on the mat of residue to help hold down the weeds until it...

Crop Progress in Central Illinois – Derek Porter

What a difference last week made in the planting progress here in Central Illinois and across many areas of the corn belt. Much of the corn in my area has been planted with a slug of beans being put in the ground much of last week through this week. Unfortunately,...

Starter vs. No Starter – June 1, 2019 – John Viertel

It’s been said that a “picture is worth a thousand words”. Really don’t have to say anything else with this picture! This is from the no till field that I wrote about back on April 25. It was planted into following a burn down of a cereal rye cover crop. We did plant...

Update – MO Plot

Here we are no tilling, into a killed cover crop, a CROP CHOICE fertilizer plot on April 25. Notice the dark clouds to the west? We did have a shower and had to quit for the day right after we got done with the plot. We finished the field the next day. This is going...

Record Snow Fall in Mid MO – John Viertel

As most all of us across the Midwest, I got out last Saturday morning to start digging out from the overnight snow storm. The picture of my truck was taken at about 10 a.m. Saturday morning and the depth of the snow on the tarp was at 8 inches. One hour later, after a...

Missouri Harvest – John Viertel

Harvest is underway in Missouri, and early results are coming in (as seen in the above screen shot). Even though we have been under extreme drought conditions here, it looks like the corn yields are going to be pretty good. This early report came from John Hansman in...

Clean Liberty Link Soybean Field – John Viertel

In an earlier posting, I showed a sprayer applying Liberty Herbicide to this field, using Soil Service, Inc. products with the Liberty Herbicide. The pictures showed the coverage on the beans and on the weeds. Well, I got time to finally get back to that field, and as...

Foliar Opp on Missouri Beans – John Viertel

          As seen in the pictures, we sprayed some Liberty Link Soybeans last Friday. I wanted to share these, because there was a 10 to 12 mph breeze (hot and very dry breeze here in Central Missouri). There was an excellent spray pattern and...

Missouri Update – John Viertel

Soybeans are really coming on in Central Missouri! As we get into June, there are going to be several things that that are going to be addressed in the coming days. One of those will be applying foliar fertilizer to the soybeans at the proper time, and there are two...

IL Corn Plot Update – Derek Porter

As we turn the calendar to June, some of the differences in our starter fertilizer plots are becoming evident. As most who use starter fertilizer can attest too, the plants with starter fertilizer tend to show more growth early on compared to where no starter has been...

Missouri Corn Plot Update – John Viertel

Just came out of the Missouri corn plot, and boy has changed from last time. As seen in the picture, there is a huge difference in the root systems! The plant on left side had no starter. The plant in center had Crop Choice Starter Program - 6 gallon 3-18-18-1 + 1...

Missouri Plot Update – John Viertel

It's middle of afternoon on a fantasticly beautiful day in late april. We just finished planting a corn starter fertilizer plot, comparing 3-18-18-1, zinc, sugar e-boost, along with liquid bacteria concentrate,  and soil restored.  Sugar E-BOOST has been shown a good...

Fertilizer Information – Tony Gann

Starter fertilizer is a crucial part of the soil fertility program, especially if you aim to take advantage of the benefits of planting earlier in the growing season. An in-furrow boost when soils are cold and wet ensures seeds have direct access to the nutrients they...

Crop Choice Starter Fertilizer – John Viertel

Winter has arrived for the second time in 2018. Talked to some guys today that are having a little trouble with freezing cattle waterers. Wind chill of below zero will do that. Hope everyone is staying safe and warm. Many have been asking about applying extra...

December Info – John Viertel

Yes, December is here! Time to be making decisions about not only what you are going to do as planting season approaches (April will be here soon enough), but also, what you can do to keep your input costs as low as possible. We still have some discounts on products...

Now Is The Time For Foliar Feeding

I returned to John Hansman’s last week to deliver some more Foliar Opp for soybeans. The field below had Foliar Opp applied prior (at about the V-4 stage).  Looking back at a previous blog, this was a field where there was concern over the population, after all the...

Soil Health Study Field 2nd Corn Follow-Up

I got back into the Soil Health Study field on Friday after one inch of rain Thursday night, and here is what I found. It is not hard to pick out which plants got the Crop Choice Starter program. In this side by side, the program was four (4) gallons of 9-18-9-1, one...

Hansman No-Till Soybean Field

Crop Choice Starter Program on Soybeans The pictures with this blog were taken May 16, 2017. I stopped by John Hansman’s no till soybean field, just north of Columbia, Mo, on Tuesday morning to see how his soybeans were doing after all the rain we had earlier this...

Starter Fertilizer & Soil Health Study Field Current Condition

Starter Program on Corn I spent some time in the SOIL HEALTH STUDY FIELD this morning. I was taking stand counts, digging some holes in the ground and looking at root systems, checking for insect damage- the kind of things that we all should be doing as our corn...

2017 Fertilizer Incentives

It’s hard to believe that it is already October. Harvest is in full swing; good yields being reported from everywhere. Watch for our yield reports coming later. Starter fertilizer prices have softened from last year, and I want you to be aware of the fantastic...

Reflection on 2015: Calculating the Benefits of CropChoice Starter and Sugar E-Boost

Thank you to everyone for their business over the past year. It has been just a little bit over a year since Andrea and I bought SOIL Service, Inc. We very much appreciate all of the kind words and encouragement that we have heard over the last 13 months. They are more helpful than many of you know. We all appreciate our customers sticking with SOIL Service through the transition.

CropChoice Starter fertilizer has come down substantially for 2016 when compared to its pricing for 2015. Obviously, grain prices have done the same, and the overall economics for 2016 are not looking as good as we have become accustomed to over the past four or five years…

Missouri Soybean Yield Results – 2014

The pictures above are from our Crop Choice Soybean Starter Fertilizer plot in Central Missouri. They are no-till planted in 30 inch rows after corn in 2013, with a cereal rye cover crop that was pastured heavily this past spring. The plot was planted on May 12, 2014 after a burn down application of Buccaneer and Authority (using SO-IL Boost Plus and Landoil), then the whole field was treated with 24 ounces of SO-IL Boost Plus, 32 ounces of Landoil, 32 ounces of Slow Release Nitrogen, 32 ounces of Liberty Herbicide (because some of the few weeds present were greater than 4 inches tall), and 2 gallons of FOLIAR OPP for soybeans, applied at the V-5 soybean stage. This program worked very well again this year, weed control was excellent.

The starter fertilizer plot was planted to see how our 3 gallon rate of 3-18-18-1 which included 1 pint each of Manganese, Calcium, and Zinc performed. As you can see from the results below, the program did very well.

No Starter – average of two strips – 65 bushels per acre

Starter program – average of 3 strips – 70.4 bushels per acre

That is an increase of 5.4 bushels per acre! With soybeans selling for $9 per bushel, that is an increase of $48.60 per acre!!

Starter Fertilizer

Yes, corn planting time is rapidly approaching!

The corn on the left side of the picture received 4 gallons per acre of Crop Choice® 3-18-18-1, one gallon per acre of SRN 28/72, plus 1 pint per acre of Zinc. Corn on the right received a standard dry program and no starter.

Everyone is talking about pushing the new genetics to their full potential. One of the best ways to do this is to use Crop Choice clear solution, 100% orthophosphate, starter fertilizer. With three different analyses to choose from, 3-18-18-1, 9-18-9-1, & 6-24-6-1, and also 0-0-30 or 0-0-29 if extra K is needed, a tailored program can be delivered directly to your farm ready for this planting season.

So what are the benefits to using a starter program?

In an early, cool, damp planting season, uptake of phosphorus will be limited. With 100% orthophosphate in Crop Choice starter, that phosphorous is placed directly with the seed so that it is right where the roots can get that first ten to 12 units of nutrients in the first 30-45 days of its life. That is a crucial time of the corn plant determining its ear size, very important to have that phosphorous there for the plant.