Here are five tips which may help you get the most out of your investment in starter fertilizer.

A 7-year USDA study found that relatively low-level grazing does not compact the soil or significantly affect the amount of soil organic matter.

Soybean is a crop that can remove significant amounts of nutrients per bushel of grain harvested. Because of this, soybeans can respond to starter fertilizer applications on low-testing soils, particularly phosphorus.

Lower phosphate fertilizer prices have generated some interest in building soil phosphorus (P) levels and questions concerning this practice. Why would someone want to build soil phosphorus levels?

Data on soils on the nations 3,265 soil survey areas are now updated and available free online from USDAs Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

I must admit to playing a little catch-up after spending all of last week in Springfield, Ill., working with my colleagues at No-Till Farmer to host the 22nd annual National No-Tillage Conference. Our second-largest crowd ever with 1,024 attendees took in 4 days of no-till learning at the Springfield Hilton. While there were plenty of familiar faces, we still saw 408 first-time attendees. More than 500 first-timers were on hand last year at the NNTC in Indianapolis.

In the chemical age of agriculture that began in the 1960s, potassium chloride (KCl), the common salt often referred to as potash, is widely used as a major fertilizer in the Corn Belt without regard to the huge soil reserves that were once recognized for their fundamental importance to soil fertility.