With harvest at a bit of a stand still, that means fall fertilizer application is also being delayed.
The province's crop nutrition specialist John Heard says up to half of the nitrogen is placed in the fall, with ammonia anhydrous being a popular method.
He had some advice for producers.
"Growers, if they're set up with ammonia and then dry fertilizer, anytime that we can band our maintenance amounts of phosphorus in the fall with ammonia, that's a pretty good way to meet the phosphorus needs of the crop. We still may need some starter in the spring, but we can apply the bulk of the phosphorus in the fall. We prefer to see that banded and ideally banded with nitrogen."
Heard notes farmers are optimistic that they'll be able to make some progress this weekend.
He says soil temperatures have dropped to five or six degrees which makes now the ideal time to apply nitrogen.
Getting a soil test done is a good starting point.
Source : Steinbachonline