It is a challenging fall with the warm temperatures persisting.  IFCA urges our members to work diligently with your customers to ensure they use a proven nitrification inhibitor with ALL fall applied ammonia.  The IFCA Keep it 4R Crop Program and IFCA 4R Code of Practice recommends use of a USEPA approved, labeled nitrification inhibitor such as N-Serve for ALL fall applied ammonia.  If you are getting any pushback from customers who believe that if they wait until soil temps reach 50 degrees, or the fact that it is November when they apply means they don't need N-Serve, they are subjecting themselves to losing nitrogen, losing money, and all of us losing the battle against nutrient regulations.  According to the Department of Atmospheric Science at the University of Illinois, "The forecast calls for an El Nino induced warm and dry winter across much of the US, including Illinois."  All the more reason to protect fall applied nitrogen with a product proven to do just that.   

 

To assist you in your 4R education efforts, IFCA has several charts derived from NREC funded research that shows the protection provided by N-Serve in both fall applied and spring applied ammonia.  These are from soil tests taken on Illinois farms and we saw this pattern consistently during the sampling.  Click here to see how N-Serve protects against nitrification well into the spring months for fall applied N, and also protects ammonium from conversion to nitrate in spring applied ammonia.  To illustrate that point, click here for a chart that shows just how fast nitrification occurs at various soil temperatures.  Please share these documents with customers who may be questioning the economic, agronomic and environmental benefits of using N-Serve; you can even post these charts in your offices since ammonia season is still yet to begin for many.   

 

As part of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, IFCA will be asked to show progress on 4R practices, including the growing use of approved, labeled nitrification inhibitors in fall and spring, and the adoption of split nitrogen applications.  If we backslide on the tremendous progress we have made in the last five years on these 4Rs, then it sends a very mixed message to those that are watching us especially given our efforts to educate farmers and retailers on the goals of the nutrient loss reduction strategy.  We have ten years to meet the goal of reducing 225 million pounds of nitrogen losses from agriculture, so we have to be making progress on every acre.  In addition to the policy issues we are facing, the bottom line is that losing less nitrogen saves the farmer money and also protects them from liability associated with nitrogen loss and water quality impairments.   

 

IFCA thanks all of our members who are diligently promoting the 4R messages.  Many of you have taken the 4R Pledge; to see who these members are, and to view the 4R Code of Practice go to www.Keepit4RCrop.org.   Join your colleagues and take the pledge:  it means you are committed to stewardship and will educate your customers on the 4Rs to help Illinois agriculture prosper and avoid nutrient regulation or nutrient litigation as we are seeing in other states.