4-29 IAN Max. Fertilizer

 Ag producers, there’s a lot more to fertilizing your fields than meets the eye. There is a very delicate balance between the fertilizers that you use, the amount you put on and of course the time of application. It’s like being in a science chemistry lab but the directions are all laid out for you on a website.

The fertilizer industry really is trying to help farmers maximize their investment in terms of input costs. They’ve laid out a formula that they are calling the 4 R’s that addresses farmers’ use of the right fertilizer source at the right rate, the right time and the right place. Here is the Mosaic Company’s chief Agronomist, Dr. Dan Froelich: “International Plant Nutrition Institute developed this 4R  nutrient stewardship that includes using the right source fertilizer, at the right rate and right time and the right placement. The 4 R steward ship  in practice, what Mosaic has done, is try to find the right way, what is the most efficient way to deliver both the main nutrients like N, P, and K and the micro nutrients, some of the secondaries like sulfur and do you put it on banded or broadcast application or do you split the applications and what rates do you really need to maximize yield. It’s a recipe  for a crop nutrition system instead of switching out one particular item. You are using a whole system  and you match that to the crop you are fertilizing.