Every producer has a field that doesn’t make sense. Maybe it’s the hilltop that never seems to perform. Maybe it’s the saline patch that keeps expanding. Maybe it’s the quarter that takes forever to dry in the spring, crusts after every rain, or refuses to respond to fertilizer the way it should.
Most of us are quick to blame weather. Sometimes we blame fertility. Occasionally we blame the variety, or the custom seeder, applicator or sprayer. But what if the real problem is none of the above? What if your biggest limitation is the soil beneath your feet?
Some of the most common yield-limiting factors on prairie farms aren’t insects, disease, weather or fertilizer rates at all. They’re hidden below the soil surface.
And coming to that realization can be overwhelming. After all, the soil is the one thing we can’t change, right? Wrong— or at least partially. While you cannot simply exchange their brown Chernozemic Prairie soil for a highly productive Midwest Mollisol, you might be surprised to find out there are a lot of ways to influence the productivity of the soil you do have.
COMMON PROBLEMS OFTEN LOOK LIKE SOMETHING ELSE
This fall you can catch our Johnston’s Regenerative agronomy team delivering presentations across the prairies highlighting the ten most common limitations affecting prairie crop production today. Surprisingly, many of them are problems producers walk past every day without realizing what they’re seeing.
The challenge is that these limitations rarely announce themselves. Instead, they show up as uneven emergence, water ponding after rainfall or nutrient deficiencies despite fertilizer application. They may also look like high weed pressure, poor rooting depth or just unexplained lower yields. These symptoms, whether they appear alone or together, often leave producers wondering, “Maybe it was just a bad year.”
The team at Johnston’s Regenerative is here to tell you that it’s often not“just a bad year” at all. Symptoms appear due to a cause (or a combination of causes). Many soil challenges can create identical symptoms above ground, but the solution must be tailored for the soil’s unique characteristics. Have you ever wondered if that yellowing crop was a sign of nitrogen deficiency? Or perhaps it was phosphorus tie-up? Maybe a pH issue, compaction or high salinity? Our unique science-driven approach to soil management will identify the soil limitations on your farm and deliver an economical approach to solving them.
FINDING THE REAL LIMITATION
Take phosphorus for example.
Many prairie soils contain significant amounts of phosphorus, yet crops still show deficiency symptoms because pH or soil chemistry prevents the plant from accessing what is already there. Similarly, a field may receive adequate rainfall but still suffer drought stress because compaction, poor aggregation, or salinity limits how water moves through the soil profile.
That’s why Johnston’s Regenerative approaches agronomy a little differently.
Rather than asking, “What product should we apply?” We first ask: “What’s limiting the soil from functioning properly?”
Because until the limitation is identified, every fertility, biological, or crop protection investment is working harder than it should.
| THE BOTTOM LINE Healthy soils don’t happen by accident. They are the result of understanding a field’s physical, chemical, and biological limitations and then building a management plan around those realities. The good news? Most soil problems can be improved. The first step is identifying which ones are affecting your farm. |
UPCOMING SPEAKER SPOTLIGHTS NEAR YOU
To learn what the 10 most common prairie soil problems are and how to fix them, join us at one of our speaker spotlights at a farm show near you:
READY TO FIND YOUR FIELD’S BIGGEST LIMITATION?
Before building next year’s fertility plan, understand what’s limiting your fields today. Book your fall soil samples with your Johnston’s Regenerative Agronomist and receive field-specific Advanced Fertility™ Recommendations built around your soil’s unique physical, chemical, and biological challenges
| READY TO BOOK A FIELD VISIT? Book your fall soil samples today. The best time to build next year’s crop is while this year’s evidence is still in the field. 1-844-324-7778 www.johnstonsregenerative.com |
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