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SE IA | We apply 0-0-60 or 0-0-62 usually. We apply it with a spinner box/cart and incorporate in front of chisel or field cultivator, I don't like leaving the nutrients on top of ground. We have some manure that has some K in it, but I don't count it much when making nutrient plans.
I assume ammonium acetate test. Levels range from 100 ppm to 300ppm. I try to build soil test to over 230-240 on ground I know we will farm for a long time.
I guess I don't take soil tests as a gospel truth for what they show. I'm still going to apply maintenance fertilizer at levels that universities would recommend mining. My point is that you shouldn't get caught up in " my soil test says x lbs is there, so I will or won't apply x lbs of fertilizer." Soil tests are guidelines and you can't make a biological system like farming into a factory where 1+2 always equals 3.
We have changed K levels significantly but we haven't gotten there overnight. Many applications. Our yields have been rock solid during some very tough crop years. In a wet year our soils produced a great crop. In a dry year our soils produced a great crop, this year we produced a great crop. We have been consistently producing about 20 bushel per acre more than our county average and during a stress year it has been 35 to 40 BPA more. Its hard to argue with some results. And I would call our ground about average to below average for the county.
I'm not trying to build the soil test as much as I'm trying to fertilize the crop and get yields. We do some pretty extensive VRT based on productivity our our soils.
I've listened to mallereno at ISU and he has been so conservative with his soil test recommendations it about makes him look redicoulous. His data sets he uses are garbage in my opinion. I have seen very low testing soils produce extremly great yields and high testing soils not produce. You can't lump these 2 soils into a 1 size fits all category like him and the land grant universities do.
To trust the LG universities with my farm is a huge risk and I can't afford to be wrong. If I followed their K recs, I would be producing 30 to 40 less BPA. I can't afford to be wrong. K is extremely important to my operation.
Edited by jocoshar23 11/25/2014 21:14
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How do you manage potassium?
