We’ve posted a special issue of the Field Crop CAT Alert on fertilizer use.

Natalie Rector, MSU Extension nutrient management specialist coordinated this issue along with members of the MSU Field Crops Area of Expertise Team. She notes, “In 2008, fertilizer and commodity prices proved how volatile and irrational markets can be. Nitrogen and phosphorus prices have been coming down, but they are still twice what they were several years ago and the price of potash has quadrupled. It’s time to question everything, including the way you have always fertilized crops. Could you be just as successful in harvesting high yields with lower fertilizer inputs?”

Articles include:

• Another look at using fertilizers
• Too little or too much nitrogen on corn: MSU’s new guidelines
• Weeds rob nitrogen from corn
• Managing nitrogen fertilizer for greatest efficiency
• MSU Nitrogen recommendations for wheat in 2009
• MSU recommendations for phosphorus and potassium

SOURCE: Joy Landis, editor