Focus on Agronomy in an Economic Downturn
By Stephanie Porter, CCA, ISA Outreach Agronomist

Farmers are asking themselves how they might navigate through some uncertain times of low commodity prices and rising production costs. I have been sorting through many articles offering advice, but they often don’t focus on agronomy. Don’t get me wrong, many of these articles offer great tips, such as knowing your production costs, developing a marketing plan to seize opportunities, renegotiating land rents, lengthening loan repayment periods, trimming family expenses, watching machinery costs and managing risk with sufficient crop insurance.

Ultimately, farmers will need to invest where they think their returns are highest in the coming years to either reduce problems or improve returns. They also will need to pinpoint where they could be losing money and seek out advice. None of this can be done alone. It will require the involvement of family, employees and effective communication with vendors and lenders about the following:

Soil Testing/pH

Kelly Robertson, CCA, IL Soy Envoy and owner-operator of Precision Crop Services, LLC, in Benton, recently shared on Field Advisor that the No. 1 thing that you can do to boost yields, improve weed control, improve nitrogen use efficiency and improve soil health is to have the correct soil pH. In corn, soybean and wheat production, we recommend a pH between 6 to 7, with the ideal range being 6.2 to 6.8. If your pH is not right, nothing else will matter, and it would be a waste of money to try to correct the low soil test results. The only way to know your soil pH is to soil test and the only way to correct soil pH is with limestone. The tricky part, according to Robertson, is that “lime is not just lime, there are differences.” It pays to know what those differences are and to compare the cost of lime, trucking and spreading to know what is best for your pocketbook.

P & K (Fertilizer)

In another Field Advisor blog post, Robertson shared a story about “Bob” who had soil samples pulled every or every other year. He had excellent fertility on thousands of his acres and did not need any additional P or K to reach the yield goals that he had set. Bob’s salesperson told him “you have to put back what you take off” or “you have to put on maintenance”. Robertson provided Bob with unbiased university data showing that after a given level of fertility, you don’t “add yield” and you don’t “hurt yield” by not applying fertilizer.

Terry Wyciskalla, CCA, owner-operator of Wyciskalla Consulting, LLC in Nashville, Ill., says if you have soil test values found on the upper side of the desired range, you could trim 25 pounds per acre of DAP/MAP and potash, which could save around $8 to $12 per acre that could be utilized elsewhere on the operation. He would divert these saved dollars to lime. Wyciskalla cautions that you cannot do this every year because the crop will eventually pull additional fertility from soil reserves. Research does show that fertilizer decisions have more of a potential impact on profits when soil test levels of a nutrient are deficient. Robertson adds, “If you don’t have a soil test, none of this is relevant.”

Another option is to use variable rate technology to put the nutrient just where it is needed. John Pike, independent research agronomist and consultant from Marion, Ill., reminds growers to not underestimate the nutrient-supplying power of our soils and to think about implementing practices such as cover crops to address compaction issues and improve water infiltration.

Weeds

Over the summer, Dr. Connor Sible, research assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shared with the audience at a Field Advisor Tailgate Talk that weed control is crucial. It’s not something you can skimp on, and you need a three- to five-year plan. Eric Beckett, CCA, IL Soy Envoy and Illini FS field agronomist, asked farmers in his Field Advisor blog whether they started clean, used residuals with effective sites of action for both their pre- and post-applications, utilized full labeled rates, targeted weeds 3″ to 4″ tall at time of application, and included adjuvants in the tank mix.

Karen Corrigan, CCA, IL Soy Envoy and co-owner of McGillicuddy Corrigan Agronomics, challenged growers in her Field Advisor blog to dig deeper at harvest if weeds were not controlled and to ensure that environmental conditions do not hinder herbicide effectiveness or indicate signs of herbicide resistance. If so, a switch in herbicide chemistry or implementation of non-chemical weed control measure such as cover crops might be needed.

Also, don’t count on over-the-top dicamba being an herbicide control option in soybeans for 2025. Some farmers are buying their own sprayers and using generic chemicals to cut costs. It’s critical to make sure you are reading and following label directions to properly manage weeds. Lastly, if you have not heard about the EPA Herbicide Strategy, you need to catch up, as it will be a gamechanger after 2025.

Machinery, Integrated Pest Management, Snake Oil

The on-farm upkeep of machinery and utilization of technology will be more important than ever. In his summer presentation, Dr. Sible also emphasized the importance of planter and combine settings to preserve yield. If possible, early soybean planting and reduced planting populations can give us more bang for our buck. Taking a hard look at your crop rotation and seed selection will be imperative, especially for disease control. Risk can be spread, or marketing opportunities can be obtained, by planting different maturities.

Now that more growers are taking advantage of ISA’s checkoff-funded program for free soybean cyst nematode (SCN) testing, they might consider switching to a soybean variety with Peking resistance in fields with high SCN egg counts. There will be immense pressure to prepay for fungicide and insecticides; however, the popularity of scouting has increased, as this can help determine whether these inputs are necessary if diseases or insects are not present or below threshold. Keep reliable records of everything, and if you are trying a new product such as a biological, Dr. Sible says to “check the back of the bottle, and if they don’t list an active ingredient, don’t use it.” Be cautious trying “miracle” products. If you do decide to try a new product, test it on the farm. Always leave a check strip for yield comparison.

Every farming operation is different, but agronomic decisions made within the next several years will be crucial. Remember that the farming business does not define you. The only thing that really matters is your family and mental health. You will be seeking and hearing several different agronomic opinions from those across the industry. It will be imperative in the future to ask yourself if that information is from a trusted, unbiased source that is conservation-minded and has a good knowledge base about pesticide regulation.