better_tools_lead_art.jpg

Tri-State Fertilizer ‘Bible’ Gets First Tweaks in Quarter Century

Nitrogen calculator and a switch to Mehlich-3 extraction highlight first-ever updates to the Tri-State Fertilizer Recommendations.


Pictured Above: BETTER TOOLS. Steve Culman, a soil fertility specialist at Ohio State University and the lead author of the Tri-State Crop Fertilizer Recommendations, says agriculture has much better tools today for understanding soil-test levels, and a large number of labs provide great services and consistent data. “Our uncertainty has really decreased and we don’t need that extra buffer of that drawdown,” he says.

One of the agronomic benchmarks both no-tillers and strip-tillers have paid close attention to over the years is the Tri-State Crop Fertilizer Recommendations for field crops.

First published in 1995, these recommendations for Indiana, Michigan and Ohio have provided a framework for managing fertilizer and soil fertility based on research station and on-farm trials conducted over time. 

Even as reduced-tillage and no-till practices, cover crops, spoon-feeding of nutrients and precision farming dawned and hybrids and varieties evolved and improved their efficiency, the Tri-State guidelines didn’t change. 

After several years of work, a group of researchers from Ohio State, Michigan State and Purdue universities…

To view the content, please subscribe or login.
 Premium content is for our Digital-only and Premium subscribers. A Print-only subscription doesn't qualify. Please purchase/upgrade a subscription with the Digital product to get access to all No-Till Farmer content and archives online. Learn more about the different versions and what is included.

John dobberstein2

John Dobberstein

John Dobberstein is the Senior Editor of No-Till Farmer, Strip-Till Farmer, and Cover Crop Strategies. He previously covered agriculture for the Tulsa World and worked for daily newspapers in Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Joseph, Mich. This is John's second stint with Lessiter Media, the previous lasting almost 13 years.

Contact: jdobberstein@lessitermedia.com

Top Articles

Current Issue

Cover_NTF_January_0125.jpg

No-Till Farmer

Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.

Subscribe Now

View More

Must Read Free Eguides

Download these helpful knowledge building tools

View More
Top Directory Listings