(KANSAS CITY, MO) — During the 2024 NAFB Convention, Jesse Allen was able to sit down for a conversation with AgroLiquid National Agronomy Manager, Stephanie Zelenko.
Q: Well, let’s just start, wrap up for the 2024 season. And obviously it varied by region. I would say for the most part, I’ve heard a lot of good yields, maybe East and a little bit less, maybe West, so to speak. I mean, that’s very generalized. I guess as you wrap up and take a look across the heart of the Corn Belt more, I mean, how would you categorize 2024 harvest?
A: Most guys I’ve talked to have been pretty happy with the yields they were pulling off. Having a dry summer for much of the U.S., people thought they were going to be lower than they normally get and really yields were as good or even better in some cases than they had actually thought they were going to get.
Q: And I think that’s been, it was interesting because some areas got very, very dry and then stayed that way. Other areas, you know, I think about Northwest Iowa, Southeast South Dakota, Southwest Minnesota, all the rain and flooding early, yet, you know, we’ve been able to turn out some okay crops in some of those spots as well. Not everybody, but it’s, you know, weather challenges, kind of a mixed bag again this year.
A: It is. And that’s probably the only consistency we have in ag is every year is going to be different. Someone’s going to be hot and dry. Someone’s going to be wet and cold. And so when you work nationally, you have to make sure you’re taking all of those different things into an account and really, you know, just look at each season as its own unique opportunity.
Q: I didn’t hear of many widespread pest, disease, insect pressures this year. I mean, obviously they were out there, but I didn’t hear of this one big overarching issue nationwide. What were some of the issues that were top of mind for you, for growers in various regions this year though?
A: Yeah, I agree. I didn’t hear anything much from the disease or insect pressure side. From the fertility side, what I heard was a lot of nitrogen loss because number one, too dry that they didn’t get good uptake with water movement or number two, too wet and they leached out and lost a lot of that nitrogen. So I think that’s probably the biggest nutrient thing that I heard is just not having the right amount of nitrogen for that crop.
Q: Well, thinking about that and thinking about 2025 decisions, I’ve heard a lot of folks obviously concerned about the cost of inputs and more, you know, how are we going to grow a crop next year? And they’re looking for various spots they can make cuts. So to that end, I mean, what are you telling growers right now as they’re starting to make those seed decisions, et cetera, et cetera, for 2025?
A: Right. You know, that’s something that with the markets we’ve been in has been a question in the last couple of years. You know, those input prices haven’t really changed a whole lot. Commodity prices continue to go down. What I tell growers to do is they still need to buy seed. They still need to buy their crop protection. So those are kind of going to be consistent when it comes to fertility. That’s where you need to really fine tune kind of that budget area. You know what dollars you can spend on fertility.
Take a look at a soil test. Get a current soil test. Spending that 20 to 30 dollars is probably a pretty good investment to get a good inventory of what you have in your bank and then work with somebody that you can mix and match those nutrients. So you’re going to get that best return for those dollars that you have to spend.
Q: I’ve heard some folks talking as well that with how much, you know, nutrients we used up this year, with how dry it got, that maybe we should be a little cautious next year in terms of what we’re cutting because our soil has lost a lot of those key nutrients that we need to grow a crop. Is that right?
A: That can be. You know, we pulled higher than, you know, we thought yields off. So in that case, they may be, you know, mining some additional nutrients out of the soil. The dry weather conditions always throw those soil test nutrient levels off a little bit.
Leaching in those wet situations may be lost some more nutrients. So, you know, if any year compared to the others, this is probably the most critical time to actually pull a soil test to see if you can get a good inventory because that’s going to give you that baseline of what you need going forward for 2025.
Q: I think about soil sampling, soil tests, you know, and more. Obviously we just got done with a harvest that was fast and furious and, you know, folks are ready to, you know, enjoy the holidays. But we know that that field work’s not done. Getting out there, getting a soil test, finishing up your fall field work can really set you up for success next year. Right?
A: Right. This is the time, you know, we want to just relax because we just got done. But in reality, this is the most critical time to start thinking about next year. You know, a lot of times the prices in the fall are, you know, the lowest prices of the season. Soil testing is best done in the fall to make sure we have that good inventory. And then just getting all those inputs that you need locked down so you can make sure you have them come spring planting. So even though we want to sit back and relax here as we go into the end of the year, we need to make sure we get all of that extra work done beforehand.
Q: I should ask from the agro-liquid side, anything product-wise, et cetera, et cetera, you’re talking with growers about heading into next year?
A: We have complete line of crop nutrition. So NPK, all the micros and secondaries. So we really like to sit down with our growers and look specifically what they need. We don’t want to spend extra money that they don’t have to spend this year. So we want to make sure we can help them find that best place and best nutrients to buy.
We have dealers across the U.S. and so just go to our website, agro-liquid.com, and that has a list of our retailers or our local rep that can help you find somebody.
Find more online at https://www.agroliquid.com.
