Data-Driven Nitrogen Management

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

A data-driven approach to nitrogen management can sure pay off in years like this one where the price of fertilizer has skyrocketed. Indiana farmer Jake Smoker credits his agronomist, Cassie Misch, and the Granular Agronomy platform with putting him in a great position for these unexpected jumps in prices.

Smoker… “We'd always done kind of zones and two and a half acre grid sampling for fertilizer, but now we're even drilling it further: manure is getting variable rate applied across the field. We've got now this data bank of seven years worth of information. You know, people might be scared of fertilizer coming this year that I know I'm in a very good position, where my fields are at as far as fertility across the board. I'm just not going out and spreading 150 pounds of DAP. I'm being very targeted and very specific. And we've been like that now for quite some time. So it's going to pay dividends this year, back to the operation. And I don't have to sacrifice my yield because I need to cut back on fertilizer. I just need to keep doing what we've been doing and it's worth the cost, absolutely.”

Smoker admitted that he was nervous at first to make changes to his nitrogen program, but his trust in his agronomist has worked out well for his operation.