It's mid October, and thoughts are turning to fall nitrogen.  IFCA urges everyone to pay close attention to soil temperatures and to use the temperature, not the calendar, as your guide with regard to the right timing for fall nitrogen applications. 

 

The Illinois Agronomy Handbook recommends waiting until soil temperatures fall to the 50 degree level to ensure that stabilized, fall applied ammonia stays in the nitrate form for the remainder of the fall and into the late winter when soils begin to warm again.  The IFCA website  http://ifca.com has a direct link to the State Water Survey site that tracks soil temperatures at various locations throughout the state.  Please click on "daily maximum" temperatures at the 4 inch bare soil level and use that as your guide.  As you will learn in the webinar on Friday, residual nitrate remains in many fields following the drought, and that challenges us to do the best job possible as we consider applying nitrogen for the 2013 crop.  If we are not good stewards of fall applied nitrogen, potential nitrogen losses that may occur will bring serious scrutiny again on fall application.  For next year, and for our future, we are all responsible for making good agronomic recommendations when it comes to waiting  until soil temperatures reach 50 degrees and using nitrogen stabilizers on all fall applied N.   Remember:  Keep it for the Crop!  At the IFCA website there is also a poster that outlines best practices for fall applied nitrogen, please review these points again and share them with any customer who may pressure you to apply before soil temps cool appropriately.  Thanks everyone!