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Nurturing soil microbes improves nitrogen efficiency

The vice president of agronomy with Sound Agriculture says taking steps to boost soil biology is key to maximizing nitrogen efficiency in corn.

Jeff Divan tells Brownfield, “Fertilizer applied in the mineral form actually needs to typically be broken down and made plant available, and in that process, some of that efficiency is lost.”  He says, “So, the more effective the soil is at actually transferring nutrients into the plant, the more efficiency we can get out of that fertilizer as a whole.”

He says high ammonium fertility practices such as anhydrous ammonia and manure application are among the most effective ways to deliver nitrogen to a corn crop, but there are drawbacks to soil microbes.

“They’re actually the most cost effective from a nitrogen standpoint, but they do come with a cost, which is disrupting soil biological interactions,” he says.

Divan says Sound has developed INFLECT, a seed-applied biological comprised of two bacterial strains and a fungal strain, to help growers utilizing high ammonium practices unlock more of the nitrogen they have already applied.

“About 90% of the time we improved yields, with average of about 6 bushels an acre.”  He says, “What’s important to me is that we won on fields that produced 180 bushel corn, just like we did on fields that produce 280 bushel corn.”

Divan says focusing on improving soil microbial activity, especially at planting, supports early vigor, uniform stands, and higher stress tolerance.

AUDIO: Jeff Divan – Sound Agriculture