Fall Nutrient Management

Hard to believe folks, but another season has flown by. I drove 30 miles on back roads from my place in the south-side of Remington, Indiana all the way to Lafayette, Indiana and I saw 2 combines getting the last of the corn that was standing in two different farms.
There are some soybeans still standing just waiting for the soil to dry out after the inch of rain we had last Friday/Saturday.
I'd like to touch a few points about soil sampling and soil nutrient management, since it is a key time of the year to manage those.
First of all, soil sampling as I have defined it before is one of the most important practices we can do when managing our crops. Whether we're growing grain, vineyards, orchards, vegetables, etc.
Now, I won't describe HOW to take a good representative soil sample since I already did in the following article soil sampling
As I just wrote, Fall is a great time of the year to do this. I personally recommend dividing the fields into uniform areas (as much as 10 acres). There are several factors that we can take into consideration when deciding our sampling areas:

• Soil slope: soil depth will vary with the slope and elevation. We should expect to have high-yielding zones in lower areas of the field and less-yielding zones in higher less-deep areas due to soil depth. One way I admire the American farmer (specially the Iowan) is the architecture they apply when building up terraces when farming on hilly areas. 
• Texture: different soil types within the same farm. Soil texture won't change in a lifetime so if there are identified areas where the sand-lime-clay% ratio varies those should be managed differently. 
• Management type: Areas with similar management strategies. 

This should be done when the soil is not excessively wet and not before ANY type of fertilization or lime application, otherwise you'll be wasting your time by doing this.

The way I look at a crop when I stand in front of it is: A crop is a reflection of the soil nutrition, water content, soil condition, weather and genetic potential of it. 

This can be expressed in yield and yield can be managed in yield maps. 

I strongly recommend comparing yield maps with soil sample results. If you can avoid applying a regular rate of fertilizer after harvest, you'll be saving $$. Some areas may not hardly need any fertilization while others will probably need more than your overall rate. 

I will be talking about sources of nutrient and ways to fertilize, along with interpreting soil sampling results. 

Thanks for reading my blog!