11-19 IAT Tissue Sampling

As farmers finish harvesting - they are seeing the importance of meeting their crop's nutrient needs. More farmers and dealers are using tissue sampling to determine fertility needs in the growing season. All Points Cooperative Agronomy Manager Gregg Anderson says the company takes hundreds of tissue samples to help growers determine corn plants' nitrogen status during the growing season. Anderson says tissue sampling for nitrogen management is very helpful.

"It is just one piece of the puzzle as I see it. We will do a V-5 tissue sample. We can find out if the corn plant is deficient in nitrogen at that point. We can follow it up with a later tassel ear fill time frame, we can pull some leaf samples and then, and then we go as far as in the fall, after black layer we will go in and do stock sampling so we use that program, we have multiple times throughout the year to correct nitrogen deficiency."

From tissue sampling this year - Anderson says there were some nitrogen shortages in his area - but not as many as in previous years. So Anderson says there is an economic benefit of tissue sampling because farmers can see if they need nitrogen or not - and if there's a problem - they can fix it.