Crop Nutrient Management Changes as Farmers Seek to Get More Bang for Their Buck

By Bruce Cochrane

A nutrient management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development says approaches to the management of nutrients in cropping systems have changed dramatically as farmers seek to get more bang for their fertilizer buck.

Nutrient management in cropping systems will be discussed as part of a field day hosted by Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development and the University of Manitoba August 8 at the Glenlea Research Station.

Mitchell Timmerman, a nutrient management specialist with Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development, says approaches to fertilizer management have changed dramatically as farmers have strived to be more efficient and get more bang for the buck out of their nutrient resources, be they commercial fertilizers or livestock manure.

Mitchell Timmerman-Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Development:
That's translated into improvements in technology, the specialty nitrogen fertilizers from commercial fertilizer suppliers and sellers.

On the manure side major developments in application equipment as well as techniques for managing the variability of nutrients in manure.

A good example of that is storage and handling related to the challenge and the opportunity of phosphorus as it concentrates in the solids in liquid manures and how designing engineering aspects of manure management such as storage as well the pumping of the product and then hauling it out to the field, targeting fields and applying it efficiently to minimize losses that represent economic risk as well as environmental risk and getting the most out of those resources, directing as much of the nutrient as possible into the crop as opposed to elsewhere in the environment.

Timmerman says there's been a lot of progress in moving the industry toward greater environmental sustainability as well as efficiency and economic strength.

Source: Farmscape