News

MO farmers focus on crop nutrition

An agronomist in northwest Missouri says farmers are starting to top-dress corn.

Erin Marlow with Cropwise Consulting tells Brownfield the corn looks good as more nitrogen is added for its key growth stage.  

“It’s got that deep, dark green color everyone likes. It’s looking really good and the rain needs to keep coming.”

Marlow says farmers are also being extra careful with fertilizer applications this year. She says some farmers took a different approach as planting began, applying nitrogen with the planter instead of the traditional broadcast application.

“They’ve looked at a lot of the economics in the last couple of years with how fertilizer prices have spiked, they’re trying to minimalize some of that risk. One strategy is to spoon feed some of those plants.”

Marlow works with farmers in six counties in northwest Missouri and two Iowa counties.

Photo credit: Tanner Owen, Cropwise Consulting, LLC.