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Farmers with Prevent Plant asking about soil fertility

An agronomist says soil fertility comes up often when talking to farmers who took prevented planting in 2019.

Jon Zuk is based in southern Minnesota for WinField United.

“If it got fertilizer in the fall of 2018 and didn’t have a crop there in 2019, does (the field) still need fertilizer for the 2020 crop?”

To help answer those questions, he refers to the last time there were similarly high prevent plant acres, 2013.

“The first thing you have to focus on is which nutrient are you truly dealing with. If it’s a mobile nutrient like nitrogen (or) sulfur, a year goes by and the likelihood of you retaining those nutrients is probably likely lost.”

Zuk says it’s not so black and white for P and K.  He recommends a soil test and points out what grew on those prevent plant acres makes a difference.