Resist The Temptation To Cut Soil Fertility In 2016

Dec 31, 2015

By United Soybean Board

Low crop prices are here for the short term, but don’t forget to maintain your long-term investments

2016 is projected to be a bleak year in terms of commodity prices. While agriculture economists are recommending cutting costs across the board to balance farm budgets, it’s important to look at your operation as a whole. The key is to find places where you can become more efficient rather than blindly cutting expenses.

One tempting cut is with your soil fertility. Like every input you use, your soil fertility has value, and it may be a good place to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.

“I tend to find that there are folks that are probably putting out more fertilizer than they need,” says Josh McGrath, Ph.D., University of Kentucky Extension soil fertility specialist. “What I find is that during the good years, many farmers invest in things like phosphorus and potassium, which are elements that tend to stay in the soil if leftover between seasons.”

Soil fertility is a vital, long-term investment for all farmers. Nutrients are necessary to produce good yields, so applying fertilizer according to soil-test results is a best practice. On the other hand, too much of a nutrient when crop prices are high doesn’t do your bottom line any good either.

“While high yields are great, maximum yield is not the optimum rate of return,” says McGrath. “You need to make sure you are maximizing your returns on investment.”

Balancing crop-nutrient needs is a science. To begin, farmers should take soil samples and have them tested to determine soil-nutrient and pH values. Those readings provide information about what nutrients need to be applied and at what rate.

“You can’t pick and choose your nutrients,” says McGrath. “The way that soil fertility works is if any nutrient is limiting, the most limiting nutrient will limit your yield. Even in times of low crop prices, you should still apply every nutrient to the soil-test recommendation.”

So where can you cut?

University of Illinois Farm Management Specialist Gary Schnitkey, Ph.D., says it’s time to rethink your budget for the short term.

“While we hope they don’t, these commodity prices could persist into 2016-2017,” he says. “I would plan for commodity prices to lead to lower levels of returns for a couple years.”

He recommends taking a look at everything when budgeting for 2016.

“Typically, people think of an input as fertilizer, seed or pesticides, but I would throw machinery in there as well,” Schnitkey adds. “I would recommend cutting back on all of them in 2016, particularly machinery and capital purchases. This is also a time to take a look at the rate you’re paying in cash rent.”

McGrath agrees on the cost-cutting potential of machinery.

“Equipment doesn’t make yield,” says McGrath. “If you cut that, you may be slower, but you’re reducing costs. In comparison, you expect a specific return per dollar invested in fertilizer. You can make cuts there, especially if you have a history of over-applying, but make sure you’re not under-applying, either, or you’re going to lose yield. Ultimately, following sound soil test recommendations is best.”

Commodity prices will eventually rebound, and there’s nothing wrong with positioning yourself to take full advantage. That includes keeping up with fertilizer applications.

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Video: Why Your Food Future Could be Trapped in a Seed Morgue

In a world of PowerPoint overload, Rex Bernardo stands out. No bullet points. No charts. No jargon. Just stories and photographs. At this year’s National Association for Plant Breeding conference on the Big Island of Hawaii, he stood before a room of peers — all experts in the science of seeds — and did something radical: he showed them images. He told them stories. And he asked them to remember not what they saw, but how they felt.

Bernardo, recipient of the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent his career searching for the genetic treasures tucked inside what plant breeders call exotic germplasm — ancient, often wild genetic lines that hold secrets to resilience, taste, and traits we've forgotten to value.

But Bernardo didn’t always think this way.

“I worked in private industry for nearly a decade,” he recalls. “I remember one breeder saying, ‘We’re making new hybrids, but they’re basically the same genetics.’ That stuck with me. Where is the new diversity going to come from?”

For Bernardo, part of the answer lies in the world’s gene banks — vast vaults of seed samples collected from every corner of the globe. Yet, he says, many of these vaults have quietly become “seed morgues.” “Something goes in, but it never comes out,” he explains. “We need to start treating these collections like living investments, not museums of dead potential.”

That potential — and the barriers to unlocking it — are deeply personal for Bernardo. He’s wrestled with international policies that prevent access to valuable lines (like North Korean corn) and with the slow, painstaking science of transferring useful traits from wild relatives into elite lines that farmers can actually grow. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But he’s convinced that success starts not in the lab, but in the way we communicate.

“The fact sheet model isn’t cutting it anymore,” he says. “We hand out a paper about a new variety and think that’s enough. But stories? Plants you can see and touch? That’s what stays with people.”

Bernardo practices what he preaches. At the University of Minnesota, he helped launch a student-led breeding program that’s working to adapt leafy African vegetables for the Twin Cities’ African diaspora. The goal? Culturally relevant crops that mature in Minnesota’s shorter growing season — and can be regrown year after year.

“That’s real impact,” he says. “Helping people grow food that’s meaningful to them, not just what's commercially viable.”

He’s also brewed plant breeding into something more relatable — literally. Coffee and beer have become unexpected tools in his mission to make science accessible. His undergraduate course on coffee, for instance, connects the dots between genetics, geography, and culture. “Everyone drinks coffee,” he says. “It’s a conversation starter. It’s a gateway into plant science.”