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Iowa officials urge farmers to wait on anhydrous
Conservation leaders in Iowa are encouraging farmers to wait with anhydrous ammonia applications until soil temperatures drop below 50 degrees.
“We’re very concerned right now. We’re seeing some anhydrous tanks starting to move in the fields and farmers are putting on anhydrous when the soil temperatures are well above 50 degrees,” says Barb Stewart, state agronomist for NRCS in Iowa. “That leads to a potential of losing their anhydrous and not having it available for next spring.”
Besides the economic impact, Stewart says the nitrogen loss can also has negative environmental impacts. “As that anhydrous leaches out, it becomes an environmental problem as it moves down through the water system, into our lake and streams and down into the Gulf of Mexico,” she says.
Historically, soil temperatures at a four-inch depth do not cool below 50 degrees until the first week of November in the northern third of the state—and not until the second and third weeks of November in central and southern Iowa.
The Iowa State Extension web site posts daily soil temperatures for every Iowa county.
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