Start Right to Finish Well: Considerations for Using Starter Fertilizer

Resiliency has been discussed extensively over the last year across many industries but often isn’t considered regarding soil fertility. Variable spring weather conditions continue to create greater uncertainty of nutrient management strategies as both increasingly wet and dry conditions impact planting conditions and crop growth. Early-season nutrient management strategies including starter fertilizer can play a large role in how plants respond to mid- and late-season environmental stress impacting grain yield, your bottom-line, and the durability of your cropping system. This session will cover some of the reasons for using starter fertilizer, nutrients to consider, where some of the greatest benefits to starter have been observed, review scenarios other than low soil test nutrient levels where starter fertilizers warrant consideration, and examine some recent data on starter fertilizer in soybean.