Fertilization Strategies for Hay Producers

Jan 28, 2026

By gerij

If you are trying to get a grip on your hay production cost, you likely have realized that one of the largest production costs is tied to fertilization. As input costs increase, it’s entirely logical to look for ways to reduce fertilizer cost. However, if the reduction in fertilizer results in reduced yield, (i.e. less fertilizer often equals lower yields), then the cost of the forage per ton (or pound) can actually go up! So how does one reduce forage production expenses without compromising yield? Consider the following tips to help reduce fertilizer cost or at least make your investment in fertilizer more efficient.

Soil test and follow fertility recommendations- Well managed hay fields use more nutrients than many other commercial crops and large amounts of nutrients are removed from the soil with each ton of forage produced.If one does not soil sample and apply fertilizer and lime based on the results of these test, it’s likely you are either over or under applying nutrients. Either way you may be wasting your money. Few other practices in the hay production enterprise can improve profitability more than soil testing and following fertility recommendations.

Do not neglect your soil pH- Keeping an optimum soil pH will ensure that soil tilth is maintained, root development is encouraged and most importantly the nutrients in the soil are freely available to the plants. If the soil pH drops much below or drifts above optimum levels the availability of some nutrients in the soil will decrease and other nutrients can reach toxic levels. This can result in a major waste of one’s fertilizer nutrients. Correcting soil pH is one of the most cost-effective ways to improve nutrient availability in crop production and have benefits far beyond just one year.

Avoid use of standard blends- Standard fertilizer blends such as 10-10-10 or 17-17-17 are commonly available by many producers. Unfortunately, these blends are usually much more expensive than custom mixed fertilizer products which can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual field or site. In the real world of soil fertility, plants rarely require equal quantities of N, P, & K. Over time the repeated use of standard blends such as “triple-10” or “triple-17” can lead to nutrient imbalances. Since nutrients like P tend to be immobile in the soil, excessive levels can cause “nutrient antagonism” and interfere with other nutrient uptake by plants.

Source : clemson.edu

Video: Can Gene Editing Give Seeds a Stronger Start?

Reagan Reed has a way of describing his research that might make a plant breeder pause.

“I’m the sort of person who likes to break things to understand them,” he says.

What he breaks are genes involved in seed germination. Reed, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Davis, is investigating whether changing those genes can help seeds establish healthy plants under a wider range of conditions.

Reed recently attended the National Association for Plant Breeding meeting in College Station, Texas, as an NAPB Borlaug Scholar. His work speaks to a question that matters well beyond a research lab: what does it take for a seed to get a crop off to a strong start?

A seed that germinates quickly, alongside the others planted with it, spends less time vulnerable to stresses before seedlings become established.

“If you’re able to bridge that gap between germination to stand establishment, then that’s going to give you the highest probability of having a solid yield that year,” Reed says. “There’s a bunch that can go wrong after that, but it maximises your yield from the start, at least.”

Reed works in Dr. Imtiyaz Khanday’s lab at UC Davis, where his research focuses on seed quality in tomatoes and potatoes. He brings an unusual academic background to the work: at Skidmore College, he studied both biology and Latin.

Reed believes that combination prepared him for research. Translating an ancient text means studying each word, weighing its possible meanings and using context to reach the best interpretation. There is rarely a way to know with complete certainty what an author intended. Science, he says, requires a similar willingness to work through uncertainty.

“Attention to detail and comfortability working with uncertainty,” is how he sums up what Latin taught him.

In the lab, uncertainty can produce a surprise. Reed describes changing one gene and seeing little effect. Changing a second gene also appears to do little. Put both changes in the same genetic background, though, and the result can be substantial.

“I break this gene, nothing really happens. I break this other gene, nothing really happens. I combine them into the same genetic background, and now there’s a massive effect,” he says.

Those interactions matter as researchers gain the ability to edit multiple genes at once. They also complicate any simple account of how a trait works: improving a seed may depend on understanding what several genes do together.

For Reed, the question is whether that knowledge could help seeds germinate reliably when conditions are difficult. Some of the genes he studies prevent germination under certain conditions. That response may serve a plant well in one setting while limiting its usefulness in agriculture. He wants to learn what happens when those genes are changed, and whether the result improves establishment.

Yet a discovery that works in a lab still has a long way to travel before it reaches a field. Reed argues that agricultural biotechnology faces an economic challenge as well as a scientific one. New tools can create value for farmers, he says, but developing them requires a way to support the work in an industry where margins can be thin.

His fellowship with Flagship Pioneering gave him a view across AI, agriculture-related work and human health research. It also reinforced the importance of bringing people with different expertise into the same conversation—a benefit of gatherings such as the NAPB meeting.

“You need to have a team of people with different backgrounds who are willing to work together and approach the same problem in different perspectives and different ways,” he says.

That thinking connects the different parts of Reed’s path. Latin taught him to examine details without expecting a perfect answer. Gene editing lets him test what individual genes do—and what happens when their effects combine. Working with people beyond his own field helps him ask what those findings could become.

He came to agriculture because of its reach: the possibility that work by a small group of researchers could eventually make a difference on a much larger scale. His immediate focus is smaller and more precise. He wants to understand what helps a seed get through its first days and become a healthy plant.