Farm Factor - Fertility Needed to Grow Sorghum - February 9, 2016

Описание: (Jamie) Were back! Let’s join Kyle and Lucas as they discuss misconceptions related to the fertility needed to grow sorghum.
(Kyle) Hi, this is Kyle Bauer visiting with Lucas Haag. We're talking
sorghum today. Lucas is talking sorghum fertility or the fertility we need for sorghum. Lucas, what is the biggest misconception that people have? (Lucas) Well Kyle, as we visit with producers across the state, crop consultants I think one of the biggest misconceptions is is that sorghum requires less fertility than say corn to reach its maximum attainable yields. And so that's certainly something that we'll talk today, specifically when it comes to nitrogen that for a given, whatever how many bushel yield you will have, it takes the same pounds of nitrogen to get to that yield goal in sorghum as it does corn. (Kyle) But the yield goals tend to be higher on corn than sorghum, but maybe that's just because that's what we fertilize for. (Lucas) There's a lot of other factors there where we're using it in rotation, in different parts of the state we see different responses, to how that corn/sorghum comparison works out. But I think the key thing is is we certainly want to be pushing our yield goals in that we're fertilizing where we can hit them when we're in those above average years and we get the precipitation and the heat and everything works out right, that we can really capitalize on those good years. (Kyle) You talk about rotation, a lot of times sorghum is part of the rotation program, especially on dry land. How does that come into play? (Lucas) It really comes into play, I think, and we'll visit a bit today, specifically managing nutrients like phosphorus where we need to take not just a single year view, but more of a long term view and how does it relate to our soil test values. And so one of the things we'll talk about, I really encourage producers to work through some back of the envelope exercises where we just think about how much phosphorus are we taking off in crop removal, how much are we putting back onto the field, and how is that affecting our soil test values? And good management of that obviously will help the sorghum crop, but all the crops that in that rotation. (Kyle) Now, there's parts of Kansas that sorghum doesn't grow well because of micronutrients, can you talk about that a bit? (Lucas) Yes, certainly in western Kansas we have issues with iron chlorosis, due to our calcareous soils. And so we'll talk a little bit about research that's going on at Hays and Garden City, and Tribune, looking at some chelated iron products in furrow that have helped us combat some of those issues. And really we'll open the opportunity for sorghum on some acres where it's traditionally struggled. (Kyle) Sorghum as a continuous crop, does that change the fertility a great deal? (Lucas) I think again it comes back to recognizing what we're pulling off in that sorghum crop. A little over four-tenths of a pound of phos for every bushel of sorghum yield, so making sure we're getting that replacement back on. And then one of the best attributes sorghum has going for it is the amount of residue it creates and how durable that residue is through time. Now
part of it is that residue has the opportunity to tie some nitrogen up. So, it's important especially if we're in the early years of transitioning to no till, we've got more residue out there. Often times it requires more nitrogen in those early years to make that system work. And if we're growing continuous sorghum, that would further drive home the importance of that. (Kyle) We're visiting with Lucas Haag. Lucas is with Kansas State University. This is Kyle Bauer reporting. Back to you Jamie.
(Jamie) Thanks, Kyle. Next up is this week’s Kansas Soybean Update.