Can saving money now on fertilizer pay off down the road or are you better off spending a little extra money to see better results in your no-tilled fields? No-tillers from around the country recently shared their experiences with using both less and more expensive fertilizers on the No-Till Farmer Web site’s No-Till Online forum.

Along with that topic, no-tillers continued the heated debate about the pros and cons of using Keetons vs. Rebounders with no-till planters and drills.

If you are looking for answers to your own no-tilling concerns or are interested in helping out your fellow farmer, log on to www.no-tillfarmer.com and check out the Farmer’s Forum message board. It’s a place for no-tillers to go, 24 hours a day, to discuss their livelihood and how to improve their no-tilling operation.

Is Less Worth More? The new low-salt fertilizers are compatible with most corn hybrids, but is the ortho phosphate package really worth the extra money? I’m considering applying 3 gallons per acre of 10-34-0 instead of the more expensive fertilizer. Is this a mistake?

—Mike Bell, mbell4pu@aol.com

To be up front with you, I’m an Alpine dealer in Ontario. Here in Ontario we have 18 years and 300 plots of research comparing 6-24-6 vs. 10-34-0 with more than a 6-bushel advantage for the former.

Since the 6-24-6 is 80 percent ortho, it’s actually cheaper than a 100 percent ortho product. Our research also indicates better yields with this product than with any of the 100 percent products.

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