November 2024 WeedRead: Planning for the Next Growing Season
As we move into late fall and winter, it is a great time to take some time and visit with your Rocky Mountain Supply agronomist about field plans for next year.
Soil Sampling
Planning starts with what crops you plan to grow where. Even if you aren’t fully sure yet, it is important to consider soil sampling.
A soil sample can help you in a lot of ways!
- Gives a starting point for fertilizer recommendations.
- Track your soils and how they are impacted by applications and crop rotations.
- Helps from over- or under-fertilizing.
- Defines issues such as low pH or micronutrient deficiencies.
With a soil sample and a cropping plan, your agronomist can develop a fertilizer recommendation that best serves your field and crop needs. This can take the guessing game out of recommending a blend and save you money, either by avoiding over-fertilizing or by preventing yield loss from under-fertilizing.
Rocky Mountain Supply has three soil sample trucks that can push through frost, so as long as we can get around fields, we can get the samples you need.
Prepay
Prepaying for your fertilizer in December or January is a great way to keep your input down. Typically, fertilizer is cheaper in the winter than in the spring. Prepaying allows you to lock in your fertilizer price and quantity.
How that works is Rocky Mountain Supply typically starts buying fertilizer for spring in late November or early December to fill our fertilizer plant before spring. That product is then available to prepay for.
Having a field plan and knowing which fertilizer you need is a must, as before prepaying, you need to know which products you are purchasing and their quantities.
