Ross Bender, director of new product development for The Mosaic Company, references how many are finding success with some new approaches to crop fertility including 4R nutrient stewardship, focusing on crop needs, and finding a fit for biological.
He says one opportunity is to focus on the sidedress pass.
“The importance of side dressing is to meet essentially a surge in demand of nutrition and season,” Bender says. “From the time the corn is about knee high to the time and tassels which is a three week period it’s taking up a lot of nutrients for this very short period of time.”
He explains more in The Scoop podcast:
When the soil can’t supply all of the nutrients fast enough, that’s when applied fertilizer fills the gap. Bender says during that three-week time period an acre of corn takes up 18 lb of urea, 5 lb. of phosphate, and 10 lb. of potash every day.
This is one example of deploying the 4R approach.
“With respect to the four Rs: right rate, right source, rate time and right place, and the more of those Rs you can address the better equipped you can be from an agronomic standpoint, which drives the economics,” he says.
Another consideration opportunity Mosaic is encouraged by is for biologicals to complement fertilizers. Rather than think of the biological tools as replacing traditional fertilizers, Mosaic has found biologicals to be valuable in using alongside of them. One example is BioPath, which is a liquid water based bacillus consortium designed to be used in season at the time of sidedress.
Because of their newness to the market as well as the environmental conditions that drive performance, Bender encourages farmers and retailers to research biologicals to find the best fit.
Mosaic has launched its own research website at TrueResponse.com to provide such information.
“We are evolving how people think about mineral nutrition. The way we used to do crop nutrition in the past will continue to evolve in the future. So being open to different ways of thinking about crop nutrition is really critical,” he says.
