Continuing with the theme of managing inputs, in our Video of the Week, Jason Webster of the Precision Planting PTI Research Farm, explains why banding fertilizer has proven to be more efficient than broadcasting.

“We’ve been banding fertilizer at the PTI Farm with the use of strip-till and we’ve seen that we can reduce the amount of fertilizer that we put on since we’re so efficient, and being in that band right under that plant, we’ve seen that we can reduce 50% of some of our applications right now. Some of that is we’ve got sufficient soil test levels, we’ve built up over time, we feel good about that. The other part of this is just the high cost of fertilizer where it’s not giving me the best bang for my buck. DAP right now — $900 a ton, I just don’t know that that’s going to be real profitable. We put on 250 pounds of DAP, 250 poudns of potash, we need over 50 bushels of corn just to break even. With the budgets we’re lokoing at today, I just don’t see how that’s plausible. So, we’re strip-tilling and banding, and I feel comfortable that we can shave that rate of fertilizer on most soils where we have good test levels in half, and I think that’s considerable savings for farmers.”

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