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| I know a few operations that haven't applied P or K on any of their ground for decades and decades. This is upland and bottom ground. This is also owned and rented ground.
They don't even really mess with lime
Do they win yield contest, no. But they seem to pull some pretty dang good yields off if it rain.
I'm a firm believer in lime and fertility. However it's interesting that some seem to really mine the soil and still get yields.
Makes a guy wonder if the ROI with P and K needs to be looked at more directly.
I do know that I manage them differently today than I used to. When crop prices are up it usually means fertilizer goes up and I pull my rates down to bare minimum. When P and K drop like this past winter I usually pour the coals to it. So I guess in a weird way I am trying to make ROI look better by managing cost but still trying to maintain over a long period.
I started aggressively managing pH 15 years ago and tweeking P and K and have seen my bean yields move substantially higher and become more stable. Corn not so near as much but still positive. So it's either luck, coincidence, or management but I believe it has had a positive effect. | |
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New farms and surprisingly good yields.
