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Farmers encouraged to wait for anhydrous applications

An agronomist is encouraging farmers to hold off on fall anhydrous ammonia applications.

Ryan Gentle, Illinois agronomy manager with Wyffels Hybrids, says warm and dry conditions aren’t conducive to fertilizer applications.

“We’re way too warm yet to be thinking about putting on fall anhydrous.”  He says, “Really probably gonna need to be careful to make sure you’re sealing up and you’re getting the knives in deep enough if we don’t catch some rain here to loosen the soil up.”

Central Illinois farmer Elliott Uphoff tells Brownfield…

“I don’t think if it was cold enough and it was the right time,” he says, “I don’t know if I would want to put it on with as dry as the top of the ground is.”

Gentle says the current ag economy means farmers should consider the cost of lost nitrogen.

“Nitrogen’s too expensive.”  He says, “We don’t want to just let it seep back out into the air. We wanna save all the nitrogen we can.”

Gentle says anhydrous should only be applied after soil temperatures at four inches fall below 50 degrees for an extended period. 

AUDIO: Ryan Gentle – Wyffels Hybrids