Make The Most Of Your Fertilizer Dollars

An Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) specialist is recommending three tools he says can be a big help with controlling fertilizer costs.

“Soil testing is one of three tools you can use to make your fertilizer dollar stretch farther,” says Harry Brook, crop specialist, ARD, Stettler. “The other two tools in the box are the Nutrient Use Calculator and the AFFIRM fertilizer program, both available free from ARD. Fertilizer costs are one of the most expensive inputs for annual crops. Shouldn’t you do everything within your power to improve your bottom line?”

 

Brook says a sound management decision on what to spend on fertilizer needs good information. 

 

“A soil test, in the spring, can give you a good understanding of the average level of nutrients in your field. It’s important to get a good, representative sample to accurately predict the average supply of macronutrients in the soil. This means multiple samples taken from the field in different locations and mixed together. The sample sent to the labs is taken from this larger, mixed sample.” 

 

Any farm commodity sold off the farm is composed of nutrients that are exported. A big crop of canola or wheat removes a lot of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulfur as well as small amounts of trace minerals. 

 

“Knowing how much goes into a crop can be used as a guideline to decide how much fertilizer you’ll need to provide to get your target yield of a crop this year. The Grains, Forage and Straw Nutrient Use Calculator on ARD’s website easily gives you that information, breaking down nutrients for the straw and the grain. You fill in the expected yield and it will give you the macronutrient use in that crop. If your crop takes out 100 pounds/acre on nitrogen and you’re only putting 60 pounds on, then the rest is coming from the organic matter in the soil and will have to be replaced some time.”

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.