Get soil tested to cut costs fertilizing fields

The Peace Country Beef and Forage Association wants farmers to think ahead into the next growing season and get their soil tested.

Katie McLachlan, the Interim Operations Manager with PCBFA says lots of the fertility put down in the soil this year wasn’t necessarily used with the drought and heat wave this year. “In order for synthetic fertilizers to become plant available it needs moisture in order to get through the cycle to become plant available.”

McLachlan suggests to producers “if you put down a lot of fertilizer this year and are looking to lighten up on the bill next year maybe, definitely recommend getting a soil test done and seeing what was used this year and what’s still available in the ground.”

The four ‘R‘ principle for fertilizing McLachlan says is “the right place, the right time, the right amount and the right rate.” She added when working with people on crop plans, they highly recommend doing soil samples to make sure producers aren’t over-applying and over-spending on fertilizer.

PCBFA is holding a virtual workshop on November 18 & 19, “Crunching Numbers” in two sessions to learn to calculate gross margin and track cash-flow. Steve Kenyon is providing an introduction to gross margin and tools to manage cash-flow in two workshops. If you are interested, the webinars are free to attend, click here to register.

We spoke with McLachlan for the River Country Ag Show, which you can tune into every weekday during the noon hour and you can listen to our full interview down below!

-Erika Rolling, Trending 55 Newsroom