How will those tough market prices affect your nutrient management plans for 2025? Univ. of Illinois soil scientist Andrew Margenot says you might want to think about dialing back P and K rates if possible.

“This is a lot like the MRTN (calculator) — the economic return to nitrogen. We think all the time about maximizing dollar per acre for our nitrogen, but we don’t really do that for P and K. It’s good to think about — and this is for each person to decide clearly based on their system — whether the couple of bushels that we won’t lose by applying P and K, again depending on the soil test, is that worth it economically? And in some years like this one if grain prices are low, and the prices of P are pretty high, it may be OK to lose a couple bushels of yield by not adding P because the P wouldn’t pay for that 5-bushel maintenance. I would just suggest that — to think about the economics of P for this season.”  

 Catch my full conversation with Andrew Margenot about phosphorous applications and more on the latest Strip-Till Farmer podcast.

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.