Technology advances improving ability to apply needed micronutrients

ST. LOUIS — Applying micronutrients to crops is one way farmers can optimize yield goals.

“There are seven essential micronutrients that are needed by all plants at different rates,” said Frank Flis, agronomist at Carolina Eastern-Vail, located in central New York.

Those micronutrients are: manganese, boron, copper, zinc, molybdenum, iron and chlorine.

“It was different 30 years ago because the air was not as pure as it is today,” Flis said during a presentation at the InfoAg Conference, hosted by The Fertilizer Institute. “We would get some atmospheric deposition of some of the micronutrients that are essential like copper, zinc and iron.”

Controlling the application of micronutrients can be a challenge.

“The method of a bag on your shoulder walking through the field, throwing handfuls of fertilizer to and fro is unfortunately still used in many parts of the world today,” Flis said. “That would pose some difficulties in uniform application, especially with micronutrients.”

Today’s fertilizer equipment has GPS steering and the ability to apply multiple ingredients at the same time.

“To further help with dry application uniformity, air spreaders are becoming more popular especially in larger operations,” Flis said. “These are set up so you can add the micronutrient package and meter it in so it’s uniform across the field.”

Technology advances are also improving testing capabilities.

“In the past we would tissue sample to see what we needed for nutrients by taking 30 leaves to represent hundreds of thousands of plants,” Flis said. “The accuracy was not as good as you’d want it to be.”

Now farmers have the opportunity with satellite imagery to do a more thorough job.

“Precision farming has allowed us to gain a lot more information, and we can layer information about soil type, soil test, topography and yield management,” Flis said.

“With satellite surveillance and automated soil sensors that tell us the soil temperature, moisture and enable us to see the carbon exchange, we now can go and take samples of those areas and compare to other areas to determine the deficiencies,” he said.

“Liquid fertilizers tend to be where we see the most opportunity because we are able to mix several different blends, and it is computer monitored, so it is precise,” he said. “I can call the fertilizer plant on a laptop with a formulation and have it delivered to the field.”

Application equipment can sidedress and at the same time do foliar feeding of a different product.

“We can use variable rate to direct what you need and where it is needed, which gives us the opportunity to apply 10 pounds of boron per acre and get it on all the plants in the field,” Flis said.

In the Northeast, he said, many farmers apply animal manure to their fields which has several micronutrients, but usually lacks boron and zinc.

“We can add inductors to the in-line systems where they use drag lines to apply animal manure,” he said. “We can meter in to the acre and use variable rate for the micronutrients we want to boost whatever crop we’re targeting.”

Technology allows farmers to look at the plants and decide what micronutrients are needed to accomplish the goal of higher yields and higher quality food supplies.

“We can put micronutrients in the row, on the row or between the row,” Flis said.

“The challenge we still have with micronutrients is not all plants need the same or respond to the same micronutrient addition,” he said.

“Several poly coatings are available, and they usually have multiple micronutrients, including manganese, boron, zinc and sometimes copper and molybdenum,” he said. “But not all plants respond to using all those nutrients.”

Farmers need to know where they can foliar feed or root feed and how the micronutrients are made available to the plant, Flis said.

“As we continue to increase yield demand, we need to look at all the pieces,” he said. “That includes today’s technology with satellite imagery, soil probes and eventually robots that will go through the field, constantly monitoring to reach our ultimate goals.”