Page 9 April, 2020
Fertilization considerations after an unusually wet fall: challenges and opportunities With last fall’s unusually large amounts of rain and snow, most farmers struggled with the delayed harvest of many crops. In addition, many farmers’ fields were also too wet for applying nitrogen (N) fertilizer. Since farmers usually apply a significant amount of their N fertilizer in fall, many farmers will need to apply an unusually large proportion of their fertilizer this spring and summer. This shift in application timing will create some challenges, but advances in fertilizer sources and application methods provide many options to help farmers deal with those challenges. Figure 1
Spring and Summer Options for Applying N Fertilizer
Since early seeding is important for optimizing crop yield, producers will be looking for ways to apply their N fertilizer efficiently without delaying the seeding operation. In order to achieve these objectives for a spring fertilization program, the fertilizer source, placement and timing must be managed carefully to minimize losses of fertilizer N to the environment and optimize crop access to the fertilizer. For more information about these losses of N see the section at the end of this factsheet.
