Like health care costs, crop inputs have risen sharply in the past few years. Not only has the cost of inputs raised, the number of inputs has continued to increase. With today’s high yield goals and high dollar investment to raise a crop every input is considered to raise a better crop.

What does it take for today’s producer to reach their yield goals; an N stabilizer, side dressing, foliar feeding, seed treatment, stacked hybrids, herbicide, fungicide, insecticide, stock chopping, and/or heavy tillage to remove crop residue, dirt work to fill in gullies. I realize not everyone has these problems, or does all these steps every year, but if you’re doing more than 3-4 of these every year there may be another cause of your problems.

The symptoms are one or more of the following; poor nitrogen utilization and leaching, seedling diseases, soil crusting, excessive weed pressure and hard to eradicate weeds, white mold and other foliar disease, nematodes and other insects, poor organic matter, residue that does not breakdown, and erosion.

Diagnosis -- POOR SOIL QUALITY

Many of today’s newest agricultural inputs are great tools, but are relied on as a solution. They are only treatments for a pre-existing condition. Improving your soil is the curative. If your soil quality is already great, why not implement preventive steps to keep it that way. It is much easier to keep you soil in optimal condition than to improve it.

SuperCal SO4 & 98G are key components for many of our customers fertility programs. Helping them improve their soil, leading to increase yields, and reduced costs. We can show how to do the same, as well as other tools and techniques for soil improvement. Look for future posts on soil quality improvement in the future.

Calcium Products, lower input costs, higher yields, better soil