Improve your fertilizer application efficiency, save money, and lower your carbon footprint
As a producer, you already know that any kind of waste is the bane of your existence. Wasted money, wasted time — and especially wasted inputs.
But unfortunately, inefficiently applied inputs, including fertilizer, is still a common challenge for farmers.
Inefficient fertilizer applications can have a range of negative downstream consequences:
- Squandered input costs: Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed over the last five years. When you apply more fertilizer than actually necessary, you might as well be throwing dollar bills right into the dirt too.
- Extra runoff and erosion: Inefficiently applied fertilizer that isn’t absorbed by crops has to go somewhere. Often, this means runoff into water sources or additional land erosion.
- Poor soil and plant health: As runoff increases, that’s extra fertilizer that’s not going to your crop. This can lead to long-term nutrient imbalances or depletion that can impact yields.
As a farmer, you aren’t changing the overall fertilizer price landscape any time soon. You’re going to have to shell out money for inputs no matter what. But what you can do is integrate more precision into your applications and optimize your investments. With that optimization comes better land stewardship, fewer application passes, and a smaller carbon footprint.
The power of precision
By applying the right fertilizer, in the right amount, at the right time, you can:
- Improve crop uptake: Getting the correct nutrients to your plants when they need them leads to healthier crops than throwing extra fertilizer on just because you have extra.
- Reduce excess nutrients that lead to runoff: When plants can efficiently absorb fertilizer applications, that means fewer nutrients washing into the nearest stream.
- Decrease application passes across the field: The right precision tools can help you avoid unnecessarily applying extra fertilizer. Fewer passes across the field means less impact on your land and lower operational emissions.
- Avoid wasted applications and input money down the drain: Enough said.
So how can farmers actually achieve this extra precision?
Totally Tubular products to accelerate precision and efficiency
Luckily, there are tools available to help farmers optimize their fertilizer use, mitigate some of those risks of inefficiency, and reduce their carbon footprint.
Many producers have traditionally put down starter fertilizer while planting. Then, they’ll come back through the field later to add nitrogen or extra fertilizer. But when farmers use the Totally Tubular in-furrow fertilizer tube, along with the TT-300 wheel kit, they can apply starter fertilizer and nitrogen all in one pass through the field. No extra trips, no extra emissions. Just streamlined application that efficiently gives plants what they need.
Mounting directly to your planter, this tube is designed to enable starter fertilizer applications that get deeper into the soil profile. This accelerates root uptake and early plant health. At the same time, you’re reducing your carbon footprint (and staying in line with environmental regulations that are constantly tightening).
According to field trials, when producers use the in-furrow tube for their starter fertilizer, they experienced yield gains of 6.2 bushels/acre compared to traditional products.
With the right equipment in your fields, more efficiency, fewer emissions, and simpler operations are all possible. Locate your local Totally Tubular dealer here.